About the Parade Upgrade
The Parade Theatre is the beating heart of NIDA. For more than 50 years it has been the space where thousands of young Australians have found their creative voice, learning to perform, design, direct, and build the productions that define a life in the arts.
It’s where students gather excitedly during Welcome Week, and where they take their final bow at Graduation. It’s where school-aged performers step into the spotlight for the first time, and where over 80,000 audience members, performers, creatives and crew experience the magic of live performance every year.
The current Parade Theatre was built 25 years ago. It has served us beautifully but to continue delivering world-class training and an exceptional audience experience, it’s time for an upgrade. We want to make the Parade more accessible, ensure our technical capabilities reflect the contemporary performance environment our students will step into, and update our front-of-house facilities for every audience member who walks through our doors.
We have commenced the planning stage, with works to be carried out from 2027- 2029.
The upgrade will be carried out in stages and, depending on funding, will include:
- New seating in the stalls and galleries, including additional accessible wheelchair and bariatric spaces, improving sightlines, accessibility and patron experience.
- Replacement of carpet in stalls and galleries.
- Stair-nose lighting and new handrails to improve accessibility and patron experience.
- Improved dressing rooms and back-of-house spaces with paging and monitoring systems, updated joinery and fresh paint.
- Upgraded lighting and sound technology — new consoles, processors, speakers, lighting battens, fixtures and infrastructure — improving learning outcomes and offering best-in-class design potential.
- Assisted listening improvements — upgrading our infrastructure so all patrons can experience the full show via induction loops or modern Bluetooth systems.
- Orchestra pit upgrades and safety net — structural modifications improving facilities for artists and sightlines for performers, plus installation of a taut cover to improve performer safety and reduce light spill.
- Fly system monitoring cameras and screens — ultra-low-light closed-circuit cameras and monitoring screens for Stage Managers, Fly Operators and Mechanists, improving safety and performance reliability.
- Replacement of stage stairs for improved modularity and aesthetics.
- A state-of-the-art stage management console integrated with wireless comms, back-of-house and front-of-house paging, video and audio monitoring, cue light systems and timers.
- Upgraded house lighting to energy-efficient LED, improving coverage, reducing maintenance and lowering our carbon footprint.
- Foyer digital displays facing Anzac Parade — engaging the thousands of community members using the light rail and advertising NIDA’s activity to the street.
How you can help
The costs of this upgrade exceed our government funding allocation. We need the support of our creative community to ensure the Parade Theatre remains the place to create – for students, for audiences, and for the next generation of Australian artists.
Every contribution goes directly into the Parade. To show you what that means in practice, here’s what your gift makes possible:
$25 — covers the cost of a set of lighting gels – the colour filters that teach our students to transform a stage from daylight to dusk, from joy to heartbreak. Small in size. Essential to the craft.
$50 — Helps cover the expendables for a full lighting session in the Parade – the gels, gobos and tape a student lighting designer uses to build their first professional rig.
$250 — A day in the Parade requires roughly $250 in technical consumables alone — cables, tape, replacement lamps, rigging materials. Your gift keeps the lights on and the curtain rising.
$500 — Behind every great performance is a technical team making the impossible look effortless. Five hundred dollars contributes to a day’s technical staffing in the Parade including the riggers, lighting operators and stage managers our students learn alongside every day.
$1200 — A new lighting fixture, a truss section, a dimmer upgrade – the infrastructure that separates a training ground from a truly professional environment. Your gift goes directly toward the fabric of the new Parade. Any donation over $1,200 will also give you access to our exclusive Behind The Scenes events program, for you and one other guest for 12 months.
$2,000 and above — We will acknowledge your tax-deductible gift of $2,000 or more with a personalised plaque on a seat in your name, your company name, or as a dedication to someone who shaped your story. This acknowledgement will be for a period of 10 years.
Please consider donating today – our fundraising goal is $600,000 by the end of 2027.
Make a Donation
Contact us
Contact the Development team directly to discuss.
Ph: +612 9697 7594 or email.