In December last year, the Northern Rivers, and arguably Australia's best regional theatre company, NORPA, announced it had found a new home in Lismore's CBD.

The iconic Hampton & Larsson building on Hampton Street (off Magellan Street) was up for sale, and co-CEO and Artistic Director Julian Louis saw it and fell in love with the venue.

The stumbling block was raising the $600,000 asking fee.

Julian Louis sat down with the Lismore App in a Talking Lismore podcast to talk about NORPA's journey since the 2022 big flood displaced them from their then-home at City Hall.

After the initial flood clean-up, with help from the community, NORPA had a short stint in Byron Bay.

"We were offered some space in Byron and at SAE, where we set up a really nice little office there. We did the hard work of kind of cancelling everything and talking to our funding bodies, our audiences, our board, our team, and doing that hard work of kind of just working out what to do next, and that wasn't straightforward.

"But what did galvanise us, actually, and bring us hope, and joy, and determination was a show that I directed called Love For One Night, which we created at the Eltham. I think it was eight or nine months after the flood, and that show really was planned to do before the flood anyway, so it wasn't something that was in response to the flood, but we brought it on earlier."

"That moment of bringing people together, that show played about three and a half thousand people, it was sold out after, I think, four nights of opening the three-week season. There was a real hunger to be back seeing work, because, of course, COVID times made us quite isolated from each other, so there was a demand and a hunger for theatre.

"But we were a little lost in the woods or out at sea, floating about in Byron, which was lovely and nice to get out of Lismore during that chaotic and difficult time, just psychologically, but it wasn't our place. And I think we inevitably sort of long to come back into Lismore and work out how to play a role in recovery, and of this place, and also get back to our roots."

The return to Lismore City Hall was uncertain, plus it was a shared space, so not controlled or run by NORPA as an artistic entity. Wild Skin was another production that was a site-specific work in one of the industrial sheds at the top of the Lismore Showground.

"It was a difficult time to be thinking about what to put on where, but also the cost of that, so the cost of hiring spaces to rehearse each time we wanted to set up. But also you set up, and then you got to pull it down that night because there's a yoga class coming in, or, you know, some meetings. The logistics of this region are so hard to make professional theatre that it's almost hard to explain, but in short, the spaces aren't fit for purpose. They're not proper studios. The floor isn't right, the schedule doesn't allow full-time bump-in and bump-outs, and they can be expensive, or they're too small.

"So what we missed most about losing Lismore City Hall was not the theatre upstairs, where we put theatre in, often touring works, but it was that studio downstairs that allowed artists to get together and groups to come together and workshop ideas. It was just a bit more low-key, and I think that's the space that we were longing for."

Enter The Joinery, as it will be known. It was love at first sight.

"I just knew that this was the right place for NORPA, and not just for NORPA, but for the audiences to come together in the future. It's not that kind of theatre that has the stairs up into the foyer, the construct is different here. The contract will be different for audiences. You're coming to a factory, you're coming to an old industrial space that has a history of its own, and we're meeting that with the work we're going to be doing. And I think that collision, or even that dichotomy of imagery, already creates something for our imagination."

When you walk through The Joinery, you know it has potential, but it is still a flood-affected industrial building that has been cleaned out, so very much a blank canvas. When you ask Julian what he sees, you immediately understand this project of passion was in his head as he was shown through the building for the first time.

"We want this to be a place of making. So, what better place could there be than a joinery? They used to make doors, windows, tables, and they used to use wood and make things with their hands. We do something similar, except we make it out of our imaginations, out of writing, out of movement collaboration, acting design, sound design, projection design, all of that stuff comes together in this making space now.

"I imagine this huge studio full of workshops, so young people and adults training and making, and international exchanges. We've got companies coming from overseas or individual artists coming from overseas doing workshops in the beautiful studio here.

"This space has got another couple of theatre companies, or dance companies, or First Nations companies in residence. There's other offices of companies that make work, that are funded and that are creating excellence, maybe a community org (organisation) as well. There's a bar, there's a cafe, there's a place to come and have a really cool bit of live music.

"And then at night, everything shifts and changes, and the lights change at the front, and it becomes a performance space for, you know, some incredible theatre in that outdoor space, and people come together and make noise and enjoy theatre."

The initial cost of $600,000 has all but been raised. Julian said NORPA is only $50,000 shy of the target.

"We need to do that within the next, say, month, and we're confident we'll do that, and we've got the rest secured. So now it's looking more than likely we'll exchange later in the month.

Julian, and the Board are seeking any donations to make this vision become a reality.

"Donations at the moment are so appreciated, and it doesn't matter how much it is. If it's a large sum, we'll love you as a cultural hero. If it's a small sum, we'll love you as a cultural hero, because you're believing in something and you're getting behind us.

"You asked me earlier, are we tired? I think it's an understatement. We're exhausted from the experience of everything that we've gone through, but to also find the energy to kind of imagine something new, it energises us. Those donations and even if you just went onto the website and click to support, it's very easy to do, you can just support it by name.

"We are really excited. And I think this is the thing that I think Lismore could really do with. It's a hero project for the arts and cultural scene. It's a place that actually embraces the narrative of the flood. It says to the world, it's a place that floods, but we're innovative enough to tackle it. I know it is in the heart of the CBD, and there are plans to make it flood resilient. We don't come back in here naively. We know it will flood again.

"The whole downstairs is concrete and hardwood pillars, and no walls, so water just tracks through there freely. We aim to lift the main studio up a metre and a half. It's just chocking it up, it's not rocket science, and we look to have a flood plan that gets us out and evacuated in a smart way.

"But also when we renovate it, we've got power boards up high, we've got our computer systems, our servers up high, we've got a plan, and we've got learnings, and I think those learnings, our intellectual property in a way, not that I want to keep it to myself, but I'm saying that we kind of learn stuff as a community, and then we can share that further afield. So, how we recover in Lismore has got relevance nationally and around the world."

As we mentioned earlier, the building is nearly secured, and in even better news, the first round of funding for what Julian calls "stage zero" has been secured thanks to the NSW Reconstruction Authority and the state government. The expected renovation budget is about $7 or $8 million, but that is proportionate for a regularly flooded CBD. It is not a $40 to $70 million new performing arts centre that would be at high risk of damage.

"Stage zero is basically getting us into the office up here and also starting to operate in this outdoor shed area. And then we'll wall up this space, and we'll wait, we'll sit on this bigger studio for a renovation funding source, and also more giving, more philanthropy.

"What we want to do is be a significant project for the state in regional Australia that has a big vision, that people like philanthropists can get behind, or foundations can get behind. If we can raise a million in foundation money and philanthropy, and then if we found a couple of grants in different stages through federal and state sources of around, let's say around six or seven million, we will have the full vision realised.'

"We have attracted this funding because our vision for The Joinery contributes directly to Lismore’s CBD vibrancy, benefiting the local economy, our support for our artists and our community’s recovery."

You can listen to Julian's full chat on the Talking Lismore podcast via the app or through the Lismore App website.

If you wish to donate to NORPA's new home, visit their website by clicking here.

The Lismore App will follow the NORPA journey closely over the next five years as Julian's vision becomes a reality.