BATS is committed to new New Zealand work.
Our Programme Manager has to think long and hard about any overseas work, as we are committed to having at least 80% New Zealand work in our programme annually. If you are pitching a work that was not written or created in New Zealand, consider why it should get a slot at BATS over a local work.

BATS is committed to keeping ticket prices affordable.
Right now we cap our top ticket price at around $20, and our concession price at around $18. We totally believe that Theatre should be the lifeblood of New Zealand culture, and so we want to keep tickets a close to movie ticket prices as possible. We realise this can be hard to budget with, that is why we also keep the percentage of the box office we take as low as we can too.

Most BATS shows will be sharing the theatre with another show.
There is a lot of demand for BATS – over three times as many projects are pitched to us as we have room for. We only have about 4 or 5 shows that have the space to themselves per year, which is less than 10% of our programme! BATS has a name for a vibrant and varied programme, and this often means having two shows on a night. With a bit of planning and co-operation, this is never really a problem – it may mean that the design of your show needs to make some compromises, but we try our hardest to ensure things go as smoothly as possible as far as sharing the space goes.

BATS runs on the spirit of co-ops.
When you come to BATS you are asked to do things like clean the seating block occasionally, and to help clean and tidy on your pack out. We know this seems a bit harsh sometimes, but it all helps to keep costs down and ensure that BATS can be as affordable as possible.

BATS can’t operate your show for you.

We have a wonderful Technical and Facilities Manager here at BATS, but he isn’t here to operate your lights for you. We’re in to helping you to work the technical stuff we have here so you can rig and operate a show anywhere. If you don’t have anyone in your co-op who is keen to do this side of the show let us know with plenty of time – we have a whole heap of designers and operators we can recommend to you!