Mr Randall Wackrow

Press, 20 March 1987, Page 13

Mr Randall Wackrow

A former artistic director of the Court Theatre, Mr Randall Wackrow, has died in England. He was in his late 50s. Mr Wackrow, who was the Court’s second artistic director, was largely responsible for the design of the Court in its present Arts Centre premises. He joined the Court Theatre in 1973 as business manager from Auckland before the Court had a permanent home. He became director a year later. He was still director when it moved to the Arts Centre.

Much of the layout for the theatre’s main auditorium was his and he worked on building part of the theatre with the builders.

His successor as artistic director, Elric Hooper, worked with him as a director and actor. Mr

Hooper remembers him as a very practical man and a brilliant administrator.

‘‘Some of the systems he put into place we still use. He was a very practical man, a good finance man who could come up

with practical solutions to very complex problems,” Mr Hooper said.

Mr Wackrow left the theatre in 1978 for work in administration and design in theatre in England.

He had spent some time in England on a scholarship. He gave as his reason for leaving that he felt he was “suffocating” in New Zealand. Mr Hooper said Mr Wackrow was working in management in the Palace Theatre, Nottingham, when he died. Mr Wackrow was bom in Christchurch but lived his early years in Blenheim where he had his

schooling. He qualified as an electrician but spent most of his working life in theatre. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.