Basement Makers

Last call 🗣️ We’ve got three EOI’s live right now: • Test Fest (Closes TOMORROW, Fri, 15 May) • Spring Hire-for-Nothing Season (Closes Tues, 26 May) • Time and Space Residency (Closes Tues, 26 May) Lesssgeddit ⚡️

First time submitting something to Basement? Want someone to have a squiz at your application? Would you prefer to do a face-to-face submission? We're holding our open house/submissions clinic/Ask Me Anything for Spring season next week, 21st May, 1pm - 5pm both online and in-person at the venue. Bring yourself, your application, any pātai, and let's have a little kōrero! 📸 Alyssa Medel for 'Let It Die' (2025)

We know it's a busy time of year so we've decided to extend the deadline for TEST FEST EOI's to Friday, 15th May, 11.59pm - just to give youse that bit of extra time. If you're keen but just really pressed for time (hi comedian friends!), just flick us an email or slide into our DMs with one or two sentences on what you're keen to do, and we'll follow up afterwards. Get those EOIs in fam! ✍️💪✨ Link in our bio as always 🔗 🔗🔗

✨2026 TIME & SPACE SPRING RESIDENCY EOI IS NOW LIVE✨ Calling all makers, dreamers & worldbuilders! We’re so excited to announce another residency opportunity: EOIs are now live for our Spring Time & Space Residency for 2026! 🌿 🌻✨ These are designed as a week-long incubation period for an artist OR collective of any practice, medium or background that is looking for additional support; to either breathe new life into pre-existing work or as a pivotal moment in your process before your work is ready to be premiered. Whichever season you find yourself in, we want to hear from you! ​​🌼Basement Theatre’s 2026 Time & Space Spring Residency EOI submissions will officially close on Tuesday, 26th May, 11:59 pm🌼 This residency will commence during our Spring season, which will run from September through to the end of November. Check out our submission form for more information - link in our bio! 🔗 📸 Ankita Singh for ‘Gay Death Stocktake’ (2022)

🌸🌸🌸Basement Theatre’s submission window for our Spring 2026 season is open!🌸🌸🌸 The air is warmer, the beautiful kōwhai are in full bloom and life just feels a little bit sweeter. The Winter winds might be quickly approaching, but we can always cast our minds forwards and dream of the gentle breezes of Spring to come. You couldn’t ask for a better setting to create and share work with our communities here in the melting pot of culture & arts that is Tāmaki Makaurau - so come out and play! And tell us all about what you'd like to share. ​​🌼Basement Theatre’s 2026 Spring season EOI submissions will officially close on Tuesday, 26th May, 11:59 pm🌼 Check out our submission form for more information - link in our bio! 🔗 📸 Jennifer de Koning for ‘Little Gay In’ (2025)

Basement Theatre is excited to announce Test Fest! A festival dedicated to experimentation across all disciplines of live performance, 7-10 October 2026. Test Fest is a stepping stone for artists to road-test a work in progress, new material, or just discuss new ideas you’ve got brewing in front of an audience of peers, the general public, and invited arts leaders. We want to see you at your most raw and unpolished - anything and everything is welcomed except for fully-fledged, full-length works. Basement Theatre’s TEST FEST submissions will close on Tuesday, 12 May, 11:59 pm. Check out our submission form for much more exciting info about what we’re looking for - link in our bio! Image created by @onedesign_nz @bomverkade

TESTING

Calling all of our beautiful artist friends and wider Basey community! The stars are aligning, and tawhirimatea’s bite is swift. Come cozy up with us, have some kai, and celebrate our gorgeous offerings to usher in the Winter/Matariki season with a special live performance from ‘VITINIA + FRIENDS’. Fri, 24 Apr - 7:30pm Basement Bar Free event

Artists from across the motu are aligning this Winter/Matariki season at Basement Theatre to give us all a much-needed dose of what’s good in the world - Live connections! Creation! Joy! Exploration! Artistry! Humanity! Community! Say it again… COMMUNITY!!!!  22 shows are on the bill this Winter/Matariki season, 2 June to 29 August. What can you expect to see? ⭐ Vital conversations and wicked fun parties from the multiple communities that call Basement home ⭐ Cosy and celebratory poetry evenings ⭐ The 16th anniversary show from award-winning Hobson Street Theatre Company ⭐ Crack-up comedy and improv ⭐ Unearthed plays and artistic deepcuts ⭐ A bold remount of an Irish classic ⭐ Energising street and interdisciplinary dance works ⭐ Award-winning Fringe Fest works and makers ⭐ Gen Alpha making their Basey debut ⭐ Political clowning ⭐ Artform shifters and tastemakers ⭐ New plays and solos from emerging talent You can count on Basement to keep glowing every week over Winter/Matariki. We’ll see you and your people together at Basey xx Unconquerable, 2-6 June Disco Pigs, 9-13 June Yellow Lamp Poetry: Vol. Basement, 11-13 June Step into the Fire, 16-17 June Babyface, 18-20 June @nickp.tipa Firing the Canon: Act Two, 23-27 June Mic Drop, 23-27 June Oranges, 30 June - 4 July Collision, 2-4 July Nature Brain, 14-18 July Honey Kaha Returns, 14-18 July WOOOF, 21-25 July James Roque: Mano Po, 23-24 July Single Handed, 28 July - 1 August Ngaro/Ertach, 30 July - 1 August On Purpose, 4-8 August El Diván, 6-8 August Memory of a Honey Bee, 11-15 August @connormagatogia @katherinedewar Hood For Sale, 11-15 August @tj.snowz The Meeting, 25-29 August Exquisite Corpse, 28 August @h4lf_thai_thiccy @sean.dioneda.rivera @auntie.rev The Ruckus, 29 August

Polyfest is the ultimate training ground for the next generation of storytellers ✨ For many of our artists, this is where it begins. It’s where our youth find their identity through the stories of their ancestors, weaving their heritage into the heart of Auckland’s creative scene 🤍 We can’t wait to see these baddies on our stage soon!! ⚡️

Hitting Basement Theatre very soon… it’s BUCK SCOURGE ‼️ And better yet… tickets cost only WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO PAY 💸 Fresh from French clown school and hot off the heels of NZ Fringe, BUCK SCOURGE is the iconic comedic montage of award-winning Wellington nuisance Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin 🤡 Are you happy not quite knowing what’s going on Are you keen to yell at a stranger? If so, do we have the show for you… *Contrary to the terrifying imagery, Buck is in fact very friendly, quite the jokester, and would never ever bite 🙂 🎟️ Tickets available in our bio 🎟️ ‘BUCK SCOURGE: LIVING NIGHTMARE’ ⭐️ Ruff As Gutz & Believable Arts Management 🗓️ 26th-27th March 2026 🚪 Basement Theatre Clown: Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin @sean.dugdalemartin Sounds: William Paul @young_deerek Producer: Tom Smith @believableartsmanagement Stage Manager: Ezra Prattley @ezzzy.p Photographer: Charlie Jewell @charlie_jewell01 Graphics: Mikayla Strahorn @ostrahkay

When I say STACKED 🌊🌊🌊 I mean PĀUA~FUL whānau!! 🔥🎙️💜💜💜 See you at WORDS IN MOTION for three nights of potent poetry from Moana & Māori artists of upu!!! 🧜🏽‍♀️🐚🐚🐚 Full lineup + show deets below. 🔮🔗📆 📍@basementspace 📆 19-21 March 2026 🎙️🎙️🎙️ 🎟️ Book via the link in bio (pay what you can 💌) Opening Night (19th): Dani Kionasina @danikionasina Elise Sadlier @elise_sadlier Rewa Fowles @toirewa Ruby Macomber @rubyrma SPECIAL GUEST: Grace Iwashita-Taylor @grace.teuila 20th: Dani Kionasina Eric Soakai @soakaiser Hira Nathan @themindfulmaori Mauatua Fa’ara-Reynolds @mauatua Closing Night (21st): Dani Kionasina Kasi Valu @kasi.valu Stellar Pritchard @stellar_pritchard BONUS PERFORMANCE: 🔮🔮🔮 #nzpoets #nzpoetry #māoriartist #pacificartist #basementtheatre