RIVERSIDE THEATRES PARRAMATTA - March 2025
On the 31st March morning 19 members met at the Riverside Theatre complex at Parramatta for a tour of the facility.
We were met by Amy (who hosts many of the groups who visit the complex) and Sean, one of the technical gurus.
We were taken into the smallest of the 3 theatres, the Rafferty, with a capacity of 88 seats. It closely resembled a lecture theatre, but is used for both cinema as well as the more intimate styles of presentation, including music.
Next we were taken into the 213-seat Lennox theatre, and then via dressing rooms and the cramped backstage areas (space is very limited!) into the largest theatre, the Riverside (761 seats). Hear we learned about some of the more interesting technical aspects of running a show like managing scene changes, arranging the seating to cater for an orchestra pit, and so on.
During our tour we were told that in September the Riverside is to be completely “re-jigged” to current theatre building standards while the 2 smaller theatres will be demolished to make way for a much larger (1500+ seats) theatre where large scale musicals, concerts and the like can be put on (not possible with the current configurations).
Our tour was meant to last only 1 hour, but it actually went a little over 90 minutes – a reflection I think not only of members’ interest, but also of the love of the place shown by our guides.
We cannot wait to see what the new Riverside will be like!
