Inaugural manager selected for Waikato Regional Theatre

Tuesday, 17 January 2023

Gus Sharp, the inaugural manager of the Waikato Regional Theatre.

Gus Sharp has overseen and run some of New Zealand's most prestigious events, and will have a new challenge when the Waikato Regional Theatre opens.

A lifelong Wellingtonian, Sharp has moved his young family north to take on the general manager role at the under-construction 1300-seat theatre and undertake the planing required before curtains are raised in June 2024.

Sharp’s start in the arts came as an enterprising teenager. Asking overseas musicians if they’d ever been to New Zealand and, if they hadn’t, perhaps would they like to? From there, Sharp developed an extensive rolodex featuring the key figures in promotion and performance of art in New Zealand and overseas.

After a stint at law firms Bell Gully and Chen Palmer, an experience he says he “despised', Sharp went to work for New Zealand Major Events. The government body is tasked with planning and overseeing blue ribbon events like the America’s Cup and upcoming Women’s World Cup.

* The great Founders art heist - bid to save Hamilton theatre could rob new one of mural

Historic features from the former Hamilton Hotel are being carefully removed and stored during a demolition process to make way for a new theatre in Hamilton's main street. Video first published November 26 2021.

* Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern turns turf on Waikato Regional Theatre build

Sharp says he’s looking forward to working within the existing arts “ecosystem” in the region to cater for both audiences and promoters.

“It’s a really unique role in the arts industry, and I’m incredibly privileged to be chosen,” he said.

An artist’s impression of the western and southern aspects of the theatre slated to open in June next year.

Like many, Sharp said he hadn’t given Hamilton its due consideration in the past.

“Digging into it. There’s so much going on. It’s absolutely amazing, and I think people need to shine a bit more of a light on it,” he said.

Sharp says he now sees that as his role.

He wants to be a champion for the city and its arts scene. Sharp says experience tells him audiences count for a lot when establishing a new arts venue. The Waikato Regional Theatre is designed to provide people of all ages and backgrounds a theatre to call their own – an aspiration Sharp is firmly onboard with.

A desire amongst Hamiltonians for the return of staple performances like ballet and symphonies performed by whole orchestras, is something not lost on Sharp.

“There’s definitely hunger in Hamilton, for example, for the ballet to come back. I think there's a real gap there for the real headliner music stuff that might not have an appropriate venue.”

Waikato Regional Property Trust chairman Ross Hargood, left, and Mark Servian, Momentum Waikato communications and marketing manager, examine the oak staircase which will be featured prominently in the new theatre.

Industry, he says, are also yearning to have a venue in the Waikato to offer touring musicians.

“There’s appetite from the industry to develop a new destination for touring and I definitely think there is appetite from Hamiltonians.”

The demography of the city will also inform what the theatre will offer audiences.

“I understand that Hamilton is getting younger… So you have to provide entertainment for everybody. It’s not just a matter of getting the NZSO on stage, it’s a matter of getting the Wiggles through, it’s a matter of getting kids through to perform their first thing.”

Sharp says that working with existing venues and the ensuring there is a plurality of performance space for different groups will sate the city’s existent arts community.

“It’s not a matter of one superseding the other, or anything like that… It’s really about ensuring each performance is in its most appropriate space.

“The more theatres you have at differing levels of capacity, the more healthy the arts scene is.”

A good example of an act featured elsewhere that might also fly in the Waikato, Sharp says is the recent “Violent Femmes at the Opera House” in Wellington.

The primarily lyric theatre – one with stalls – is perfect for “acts you might have head banged to in the 90s” the upcoming Pavement tour being one such example, Sharp says.

Waikato Regional Property Trust - the trust which will oversee the ownership of the theatre – chairperson Ross Hargood, says that the appointment of Sharp as manager “is a real milestone for us”.

”Once Gus arrives, we can really begin the operation of the theatre. We did an extensive search throughout Australasia and the UK and what impressed us about Gus was his desire to engage with the community usage integral to the ethos of the theatre,” Hargood said.