OUR HISTORY

Welcome, Haere Mai…

Centrepoint Theatre has been telling stories in the heart of the Manawatū for fifty years.

Our humble beginnings started at 81 George St, a former music club called The Boulevard, which had been “closed down for various misdemeanours”. Filled with ‘roughly’ 80 iron seats and a leaky roof, we debuted our first highly ambitious season of thirteen plays. The seats were so uncomfortable you had to arrive an hour in advance to secure yourself a cushion.

Come 1978, we had outgrown our nicotine-haze filled space and moved to our current location on the corner of Church and Pitt Streets. Home. Admittedly, our home was an ex-railway workshops/steel equipment factory/children’s model museum and haunted by a friendly ghost. But it is our home all the same.  

Fifty years later we have produced more than 400 main bill productions, employed more than 3000 actors, directors and designers and injected over six million dollars into the Palmerston North economy. We have produced more New Zealand plays than any other theatre .

We have loved welcoming you through our doors and how we’ve shared laughs, tears and dramatic moments together. Without you, there would be no Centrepoint Theatre. We hope you have loved spending time with us. If it’s been a while, check in on us, we’d love to see you. We’ve built our reputation on delivering outstanding theatre designed to challenge, inspire and entertain audiences and our fiftieth season builds on that heritage.

Thank you for the last fifty years – here’s to many more.

Your friends,
Centrepoint Theatre

Past Shows

For a comprehensive look into our history please read below FORTY YEARS OF CENTREPOINT THEATRE, written by Peter Hawes in 2014.

This book would not have been possible without the support of the Earle Creativity and Development Trust.