Dolphin Theatre (12 Spring Street)

The Onehunga Repertory Players, an amateur dramatics society, began performing in 1962, initially at the high school to the west of the town on Pleasant Street. They were gifted this plot of land by the Onehunga Borough Council in 1966 and built the ‘Little Dolphin Theatre’ with the manual labour of the players themselves. During the first week of opening, a dolphin was seen in the Manukau Harbour, which they considered an indication of good fortune. The community outgrew the theatre quite rapidly: one plan mooted in the late 1970s was to extend the old Carnegie Library to form a new theatre building. An expansion and renovation of the theatre in 1981 increased the seat count from 94 to 121, which was judged to be sufficient to drop the ‘Little’ from the name. The members and volunteers continue to put on six shows per year.

Continue along Spring Street.