Save the Regent

Support is growing for a change of heart on the Regent, with many Queenslanders calling on the Premier, Anna Bligh, to encourage the site's owners and developers to include a restored large theatre in their plans. Meanwhile, in an ad in the brochure for the Queer Film Festival, the Brisbane International Film Festival is using a picture of the Regent's Showcase Theatre to promote itself. BIFF won't be on until November and, sadly, the Showcase will close in June and, unless we all fight very hard, will be demolished not long afterwards. A world-class film festival needs a venue like the Showcase (or a super-sized, restored version thereof), and the wonderful red-carpet experience that can only be had in Brisbane at the Regent! If you haven't already done so, please email the Premier and the owners of the building. The details are under the Links menu item.

Don't bother waiting for Godot; he's not coming. The Regent Theatre is back in the news today, with the Courier-Mail's Tonya Turner revealing that an acclaimed production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot starring Sir Ian McKellen won't be coming to Brisbane due to the lack of a suitable venue. The story quotes me saying that the Regent could be restored into a theatre much more cost-effectively than building a new venue from scratch. Godot is one of many productions that haven't found their way to Brisbane because of scheduling conflicts at QPAC. Godot producer Liza McLean says: "Commercially, everybody would love for there to be another venue in Brisbane". Lyndon Terracini, the former Brisbane Festival boss who now runs Opera Australia, agrees. With the city growing at the rate it is, we absolutely need another new venue as soon as possible or risk becoming seen as a cultural backwater. Restoring the original Regent auditorium as part of the current office-tower project for the site would be an efficient way to give our city a versatile theatre/concert/cinema space while protecting Brisbane's last remaining Hollywood-style picture palace for future generations. Anna Bligh, it's not too late to make this happen.
Cross-posted from debritz.net
Update: There's a great comment from Bille Brown here.

According to a Tweet and Facebook update from Brisbane movie guru Des Partridge, the Regent will close on June 15 after farewell program of shorts and specials on Sunday, June 6, starting at 5pm. Remember folks, you can still voice your protest by contacting the Premier, the mayor and others - addresses are on here. Other theatres around Australia and the world have been restored to their original glory, but Brisbane likes to demolish its cultural icons (think Festival Hall and Cloudland, Her Majesty's , the Metro, the Paris and all the others). And, remember, despite its unsympathetic makeover in the 1980s, it's still Brisbane's only original Hollywood-style picture palace. Under the developer's proposal, everything beyond the grand staircase will go - including the Showcase cinema and the ornate bar area.

Radio 4KQ's John Knox recently spoke on air about the character of inner Brisbane. Click here to listen.