Melbourne Theatre Company

Melbourne Theatre Company

Known popularly as MTC, the oldest professional theatre in Australia is Melbourne Theatre Company. Positioned in the Ferrars Street complex at Southbank in Victoria, it carries out mostly in the Playhouse and Fairfax Studio of the Victorian Arts Centre.

This theatre company is a Department of the University of Melbourne though it has been recognized as Victoria's State Theatre. At present, it presents a subscription season of ten to twelve plays each year, as well as running education and associate writers programs.

Founded in 1953 by John Sumner, as the Union Theatre Repertory Company, Melbourne Theatre Company's unique idea was to offer a season of plays over those months during which the Union Theatre was not being used by student drama societies. Melbourne Theatre Company was Australia's first professional repertory theatre, staging a new play every two weeks during the season.

The first play, Jean Anouilh's Colombe, opened on 31 August 1953, starring Zoe Caldwell, George Fairfax, and Alex Scott.

Championing Australian writing, MTC has introduced works of writers such as Alan Seymour, Vance Palmer, Patrick White, Alan Hopgood, Alexander Buzo, David Williamson, John Romeril, Jim McNeil, Alma De Groen, John Powers, Ron Elisha, Janis Bolodis, Hannie Rayson, Louis Nowra, Michael Gurr, Jack Davis, Michael Gow and Joanna Murray Smith. The first Australian play produced by the company was The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1955; and this was promptly renowned as an Australian classic.

In its historical journey, the Company has performed in many venues. It had its performances in the Russell Street theatre, the Athenaeum Theatre, St Martins Theatre and, since 1984, the Victorian Arts Centre. Later in the year 2005, it was proclaimed that the company would have its own theatre on Southbank Boulevard in Southbank. Construction has already begun on the 500-seat theatre and work is in progress in order to welcome its first audiences in 2008.

Annual sponsors of the Melbourne Theatre Company include:

- Hanging Rock Winery
- The Deck Restaurant
- QuayWest
- Paul Mitchell
- Epicure
- Playbill
- Crown Lager and
- Boomerang Paper
- Philanthropic sponsors include-
- Harold Mitchell Foundation
- Robert Salzer Foundation, and
- Sidney Myer Fund

Hotels in Melbourne
Ibis Hotel	Atlantis Hotel
Harbour View Apartments	Pacific International Apartment
Sophia Hotel	Bayview On The Park Hotel

Book Melbourne hotels now