The venue
Riversend Playhouse is a regional performing arts venue in Wellington Shire, Victoria, presenting touring music, theatre, classical and family programming since 1990. The venue is owned and operated by the local shire council and run by a small permanent staff supplemented by a roster of volunteer ushers and front-of-house casuals drawn from the surrounding towns.
Two performance spaces
The Main Theatre seats 470 across stalls and a small balcony with a fly tower, full lighting rig and an orchestra pit that lifts to stage level. The Studio is a flexible black-box space with a 90-seat capacity, used for community theatre, smaller touring productions, theatre-in-education and the venue's regular post-show discussion programme.
The foyer doubles as a gallery space showing work by regional Victorian artists on a rotating programme. The outdoor lawn at the rear of the building hosts the venue's summer outdoor cinema and occasional music programming during the warmer months.
Programming strands
The annual programme runs across five strands: touring music, classical, theatre, family programming and community theatre. Touring music and classical bring major Australian and international acts to regional Victoria, often as part of broader regional Victorian or Australian touring circuits. Family programming runs concentrated across the four school holiday periods. Community theatre is built around the small number of theatre groups operating in the surrounding towns; the Yarram Theatre Group is the most active.
The Playhouse and the region
The Playhouse sits within a network of regional Victorian performing arts venues that share touring routes and occasionally co-commission productions. The relationships with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and with the touring companies of CDP Theatre Producers and Critical Stages have run for the better part of a decade and account for a meaningful share of the annual programme.
Staff and governance
The Playhouse is run by a venue manager, a programming manager, a technical manager and a small box office team. Programming decisions are made by the programming manager in consultation with the venue manager and an advisory committee. The advisory committee meets quarterly and includes a regional arts officer, a community theatre representative and two patrons appointed by the council.
How to get in touch
For programming enquiries, venue hire, tour booking or any general question, the contact page has the right phone numbers and email addresses. Tickets and subscriber packages are handled through the box office.