Naming Rights
Become Part of Our Story:
Through music, theatre, dance and art, the Baxter Theatre Centre has been a site of storytelling since 1977.
The Baxter Theatre was established through a visionary bequest by Dr W. Duncan Baxter for the building of a theatre that would be a home for developing art and culture for all the people of Cape Town and the surrounding areas.
Well over 500 000 patrons attend over 1 500 performances annually, making The Baxter the busiest theatre in Africa.
Naming Rights Opportunities:
The Baxter consists of five theatres:
The Pam Golding Theatre
The Baxter’s Main Theatre, which seats 674 over three tiers. Already has naming rights.
Concert Hall
The Concert Hall features a fine Von Beckerath Organ and seating for 638 across two tiers. It serves as the musical centre of The Baxter, with its beautiful domed ceiling primarily designed to optimise acoustics for orchestras and singers. Currently, the Concert Hall is utilised by the University of Cape Town’s College of Music during term time for classes and student showcases. The Cape Town Concert Series also takes place here, offering a diverse array of classical music performances once a month.
Baxter Studio
The intimate Baxter Studio Theatre, with 172 seats, is steeped in South African Theatre history. It hosts all forms of the performing arts, including drama, dance, music, and stand-up comedy. As a more experimental performing space, seating arrangements can be altered to create more innovative layouts.
Flipside Theatre
The Flipside Theatre shares the stage with the main theatre, with the audience seated in the rear stage area, and has a maximum capacity of 301. It is a blank space where more experimental theatre is encouraged. The space is open to interpretation; seating can be rearranged to create more inventive layouts, such as playing in the round.
Masambe Theatre
The Masambe Theatre is The Baxter’s vibrant incubator for emerging theatre-makers, designed for intimate audiences and crafted to spotlight fresh, experimental work. With a compact 60-seat auditorium, it allows for dynamic projections and a cosy performance energy that supports and nurtures new voices.
Zabalaza Theatre Festival
Zabalaza Theatre Festival: Since its 2011 redesign, the Zabalaza Outreach and Development Programmes have introduced more than 100,000 young people to theatre - offering workshops, mentorship, and a platform to create work in their own languages, building pride, skills and sustainable career paths in the performing arts. As the beating heart of The Baxter’s community engagement, Zabalaza has transformed lives across the Western Cape and beyond, enriching South Africa’s cultural heritage while opening doors to education and employment. Securing the Naming Rights of Zabalaza means aligning your brand with opportunity, empowerment, and cultural pride, while helping us bring thousands of learners, community groups and senior citizens to experience the magic of theatre each year.
We are seeking visionary partners to take up Naming Rights for our four remaining performance venues and our flagship incubator for South African new voices, the Zabalaza Outreach and Development Programmes. This is more than signage - it’s a chance to build a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership that elevates both your brand and ours, while demonstrating a bold commitment to social development.
With over 2,000 patrons daily and 1,000 learners and community members engaged through our initiatives, your brand will be seen, celebrated, and aligned with a theatre that champions diversity, creativity, and community investment. Benefits include prominent naming across venues and platforms, foyer branding, presence in the Baxter diary (24,000 distributed annually), exposure through our 110,000-strong database and dynamic social media reach (64,000 Facebook, 17,800 X, 9,184 Instagram, 7,700 TikTok).
Naming Rights partners also enjoy invitations to opening nights, exclusive networking opportunities, and the recognition of being a community-minded supporter of South African theatre. Plus, all contributions are eligible for Section 18A tax deductions.