BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989.

Venue: BATS Theatre
Town: Wellington, NZ

BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zealand. The BATS Theatre Company was founded in 1976 by Rodney Bane and David Austin. BATS is an acronym of "Bane Austin Touring Society". Initial plans were to tour one-act plays in Wairarapa, Manawatu and Wellington. Bane and Austin took over the current building at 1 Kent Terrace in the late 1970s and the building was renamed BATS Theatre in 1979. By the 1980s, Bane and Austin had moved on to other things. BATS Theatre venue became a space that could be leased and was 're-opened as a professional theatre' in 1989 by Simon Bennett (director) and Simon Elson after months of renovations. Bennett went on to become a television director, working on shows including Shortland Street and Power Rangers. Because of their vision in setting up BATS Theatre, Bennett and Elson won the Mayor's Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre in 2014 at the Wellington Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. BATS celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019 with an event called BATStravaganza Birthday at the Embassy Theatre. In an interview about the early days of BATS as a professional theatre, Simon Elson said:"... (the) philosophy for Bats was not to have an artistic director making decisions of what shows could be staged there. Instead, the theatre helped facilitate what people wanted to stage. The theatre's small size was very important; there was less financial risk in staging new shows."For many decades BATS Theatre operated the theatre space on the lower floor, while the building's owners Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB) used the space upstairs for regular meetings. According to playwright Ken Duncum, BATS Theatre in the 1980s "existed as a place that could be rented for 60 dollars a day - they didn't mind what you did in it". BATS was a venue