The Russell Street Theatre was a theatre on
Russell Street, Melbourne
Russell Street is a main street and thoroughfare in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly north-south and was laid out as a core feature of the Hoddle Grid in 1837.
Russell Street is named after John ...
, Australia.
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...
performed there from 1960 to 1994, using it as their main city venue in the 1960s and early 1970s and their secondary venue from the late 1970s to 1994.
The building was first constructed as an engineering workshop in the 1880s and was extended as a church in 1920. In 1955, the building was sold to the
Council of Adult Education and converted into a theatre seating 420.
The then Union Theatre Repertory Company (later the MTC) used the building for half the year as their city venue from 1960, and took over the building five years later. Architect
Robin Boyd renovated the theatre and decorated it in shades of red. The theatre closed in 1994 when the MTC moved fully to the then
Victorian Arts Centre
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
.
References
{{coord missing, Victoria (Australia)
Former theatres in Melbourne