The Playbox Theatre was a theatre located at 53-55

Exhibition Street Exhibition Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. The street is named after the International Exhibition held at the Royal Exhibition Building in 1880, and was previously known as Stephen Street from ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metrop ...

, Australia, from 1927 to 1984. It became the home of the Playbox Theatre Company, previously Hoopla! and later Malthouse Theatre.

History

The theatre seating around 300 people was established by entrepreneurs Kenn Brodziak and Harry M. Miller, converted from the former Kelvin Hall built in 1927. It opened in June 1969 with the controversial play '' The Boys in the Band''. Plays and musicals at the theatre in the early 1970s included ''

Butterflies Are Free ''Butterflies Are Free'' is a 1972 American comedy-drama film based on the 1969 play by Leonard Gershe. The 1972 film was produced by M. J. Frankovich, released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Milton Katselas and adapted for the screen by G ...

'', '' Juggler's Three'' and ''

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''. The

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...

leased the theatre for two years from mid-1974 to mid-1976. In 1977, the Playbox Theatre became the home of theatre company Hoopla!, which changed its name to the Playbox Theatre Company. A second smaller 80-seat theatre, the Playbox Upstairs, was established in the building in 1978, with the original theatre called the Playbox Downstairs. The theatre was destroyed by a fire in February 1984. The building was later rebuilt as offices with the heritage stone facade retained.

References

{{Reflist Former theatres in Melbourne Theatres completed in 1969