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| Location | Burton Street Tabernacle 39 Burton Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales |
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| Coordinates | 33°52′43″S151°12′58″E / 33.878659°S 151.216067°E |
Darlinghurst Theatre was an independent theatre company from 1993 - 2024, based at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. [1]
Glenn Terry established the company in 1993 initially as an inner-city drama school. Darlinghurst Theatre productions were originally based at the Wayside Theatre in the heart of Kings Cross. A devastating hail storm in 1999 destroyed its roof and the company was sent in search of new home. South Sydney Council assisted by providing a venue with affordable rent in what was known as the Reginald Murphy Hall on Greenknowe Ave in Elizabeth Bay.
In 2001, with financial support from the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts, The Grosvenor Club and numerous individuals, A$500,000 worth of internal renovations was largely completed by Glenn Terry and friends, many of whom were jobbing actors, writers and directors.[ when? ] At the time of the renovations, Sydney's Her Majesty's Theatre was closed and some of that theatre's equipment found a new home at the new Darlinghurst Theatre, including 80 red leather seats, dressing room mirrors, lighting and bar equipment.
The Darlinghust Theatre successfully operated in Elizabeth Bay from 2001 till 2013, when it expanded by moving to the newly refurbished 200 seat Eternity Playhouse on Burton St, in the heart of Darlinghurt, with the assistance of the City of Sydney and Arts NSW in November 2013. Glenn Terry remained Artistic Director, bringing a dedicated team over with him to The Eternity. The old Darlinghurst Theatre venue was renamed the Hayes Theatre in 2014, and currently specialises in independent caberet and music theatre.
From 2016–2018, the theatre partnered with Women in Theatre and Screen (WITS) to present an annual all-female theatre festival called Festival Fatale. [2] It launched in 2016 as part of WITS' larger work advocating for gender representation on stage and includes readings and staged plays. [3] [4] [5]
Glenn Terry retired as Executive Director in 2022 after leading the DTC for 30years. His long-term co-artistic director of 6years, Amylia Harris took over the reins, having proven herself to be a strongly ethical and creative leader, as the company navigated through the covid pandemic and funding shifts. She stepped away in 2023 for family reasons.
In June 2024, Darlinghurst Theatre was placed into voluntary administration. [6]
This ẁas the inaugural production in the new theatre space on Greenknowe Ave.
All My Sons was the inaugural production for the Eternity Playhouse.
The cultural life of Sydney is dynamic and multicultural. Many of the individual cultures that make up the Sydney mosaic are centred on the cultural, artistic, ethnic, linguistic and religious communities formed by waves of immigration. Sydney is a major global city with a vibrant scene of musical, theatrical, visual, literary and other artistic activity.
Kings Cross is an inner-eastern locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is bounded by the suburbs of Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutters Bay and Darlinghurst.
Michael Robert Darragh is a theatre producer and director as well as writer and occasional performer.
Arthur Malcolm Stace, known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian soldier. He was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s, when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by inscribing the word "Eternity" in copperplate writing with yellow chalk on footpaths and doorsteps in and around Sydney, from Martin Place to Parramatta, from 1932 to his death in 1967. He has become somewhat of a legend in the local folklore of the city, and the story of his life has inspired books, museum exhibits, statues, an opera, and a film.
Tommy Murphy is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, adaptor and director. He created and was head writer for the 2022 TV series Significant Others. He is best known for his stage and screen adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man. His most recent plays are a stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach, Mark Colvin's Kidney and Packer & Sons.
Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first capital city multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the 1970s, designed by Hassell Architects. Located on Kaurna Yarta, the Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 with the rest of the centre following soon after. The complex includes Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre and several gallery and function spaces. Located approximately 50 metres (160 ft) north of the corner of North Terrace and King William Road, lying near the banks of the River Torrens and adjacent to Elder Park, it is distinguished by its two white geometric dome roofs, and lies on a 45-degree angle to the city's grid.
The Coca-Cola Billboard in Kings Cross, Sydney, usually referred to by Sydneysiders simply as "The Coca-Cola Sign" or "The Coke Sign", is an advertising billboard erected in 1974 by the Coca-Cola Company. It is more often regarded as an iconic landmark than as an advertisement. Commercially, it is considered to be the premier billboard in Sydney and is the largest billboard in the Southern Hemisphere. It is commonly, though incorrectly, assumed to be heritage-listed.
James Millar is an Australian actor, singer and writer. He wrote the musical drama The Hatpin, the song cycle LOVEBiTES and co-wrote the semi-autobiographical musical A Little Touch of Chaos.
Alex Broun is an Australian theatre director/producer, playwright and screenwriter, who has worked extensively with Short+Sweet, a series of theatre festivals for productions of ten minutes or less. Born in Sydney, Australia, he has been referred to as "the Shakespeare of short plays". Broun has had over 100 ten-minute plays produced in over 2000 productions in more than 40 countries globally, and his plays have been translated into many languages. He has also worked extensively as a Rugby journalist and served as Media Manager for the Springboks (1997–2000), the British & Irish Lions (2001), and the Melbourne Rebels (2007).
Richard Hamburger is an American theater director. He has directed an extensive range of plays in theaters nationwide, and from 1987 to 1992 was Artistic Director of the Portland Stage Company before being named the fifth Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center (DTC) in 1992. He left the DTC in 2007, and continues to direct plays in theaters nationwide.
The Eternity Man is a chamber opera in one act and seven scenes by the Australian composer Jonathan Mills to a libretto by Dorothy Porter. It deals with the life of Arthur Stace who was known as "The Eternity Man" because he chalked the word "Eternity" about 500,000 times in over 35 years on Sydney's walls and footpaths.
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Brett Joseph Sheehy an Australian artistic director, producer and curator. He has been director of international arts festivals in Australia's state capital cities, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, and Melbourne Festival.
Peter Hayes is a Sydney based, British trained, Australian television, film and theatre actor and director. He is perhaps best known for the role of Dr. Steven Ryan in the long running Australian soap opera, Prisoner.
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Peter MacGregor Pagan was an Australian-American actor from Sydney best known for his role in The Overlanders (1946).
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Stephen Ross Madsen is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jason "J.D." Dean in the Australian production of Heathers: The Musical, and in 2017, he originated the role of Alexander Shkuratov in the musical Muriel's Wedding.
The Eternity Playhouse is a 200-seat theatre in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The playhouse, which opened in 2013, was created from the heritage-listed Burton Street Tabernacle. Darlinghurst Theatre Company is the resident company. The name 'Eternity' references the work of Arthur Stace inscribing that word on Sydney streets.
Festival Fatale, sometimes called the WITS Festival Fatale, was an all-female theatre festival in Sydney, Australia organized by Women in Theatre and Screen (WITS) in partnership with the Darlinghurst Theatre Company and the Eternity Playhouse to celebrate the work of Australian women. It launched in 2016 as part of WITS' larger work advocating for gender representation on stage and includes readings and staged plays. The inaugural festival drew more than one hundred submissions, all written by women with female protagonists, which were narrowed down to twenty programs during the festival.