Shakespeare in the South Pacific
Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand is a life skills enhancing organisation. It provides educational opportunities for people of all ages - primary, secondary, tertiary, emerging and professional theatre practitioners, teachers, corporate sector and lovers of Shakespeare.
SGCNZ Trust promotes, encourages and facilitates the performance, appreciation and study of the works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
SGCNZ was founded in 1991, following a visit to New Zealand the previous year by Sam Wanamaker, instigator of the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre near its original site in Southwark, London. Sparked by Sam's vision, the international network of Shakespeare Globe Centres is associated with Shakespeare's Globe Trust on the South Bank of the Thames in London.
In 1993 SGCNZ took over the responsibility of the International Exhibition tour of the Globe Theatre Hangings. Initiated and co-ordinated by the Wellington Shakespeare Society as a gift from the people of New Zealand to the Globe in London, the four huge hangings were officially unveiled and presented to the Globe on 22 April 1994.
In 2006, SGCNZ changed its legal status from an Incorporated Society to a Charitable Trust, with Friends of SGCNZ.
Brief history of the Hangings Project
New Zealand joined the international project to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe in Southwark London soon after a member of the Wellington Shakespeare Society (WSS) read of it in 1983. By the end of that year a WSS sub-committee began liaising with the late Sam Wanamaker.
After considerable discussion and extensive global research, the designs of the Hangings were decided and produced by Executive Designer Dr Raymond Boyce.
From January 1990 to April 1991, 500 women all over New Zealand created the four hangings (3.6m high), from a fusion of hand and machine embroidery, dye and applique, with their work overseen by Kath Des Forges.
Globe Theatre Hangings Project Manager, Dawn Sanders, co-ordinated the many facets of the project and raised the $1,300,000 in cash and in kind, donated through the generosity of New Zealanders from all over the country.
The Hangings toured New Zealand for two years and then internationally to Australia, USA and Canada before being officially presented to the Patron of the Globe, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in April 1994. The Globe Theatre opened on 12 June 1997 and the Hangings are now in the Exhibition on permanent display.
This page last updated Autumn 2007
