But first, the company must leave a lot behind. The theatre has two ghosts, regularly making appearances, members say, backstage and beside the proscenium arch.

They are also farewelling a stage trod by Genesian alumni such as actors Angela Punch McGregor, Bryan Brown, Peter Carroll and Judi Farr, actor and director John Bell, playwright and director Nick Enright and writer and academic Coral Lansbury, mother of former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Michael Schell, who joined in 1973, recalls Baz Luhrmann performing at the Genesian.

“His first time ever on stage was in this theatre,” Schell says.

“His next-door neighbour dragged him in for The Winslow Boy around 1980, 81, and that was that.”

Backstage, dusty, whitewashed brick walls surrounding cramped dressing rooms are covered in peeling posters advertising decades-old productions of Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day, The Women, The Odd Couple, Trap For A Lonely Man and a Sydney Festival umbrella season of Daisy Pulls it Off directed by Bernadette Hayes.

Taped on one wall is An Actor’s Prayer, spoken by company members before each show. The company’s lush red velvet curtains, prop stained-glass windows and rows of red velvet seats, all salvaged from the demolished Her Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket, will also be left behind.

“There are incredible compliance issues with creating a performance space now,” Nielsen says. “It’s quite onerous and expensive.

“If anyone asks why are there no new small theatres, I can tell you that is why.”

But the Genesian Theatre Company’s passion and work ethic has never waned. Nielsen says the group’s loyal and diverse membership, about 120-strong and open to anyone aged 18 and over, allows people of all ages, backgrounds and theatre aspirations to participate.

“It’s not just acting,” he says, “It’s working as, and often learning to be, a stage manager, set or sound designer, lighting and sound operator or front-of-house administrator.

“We have members who are in their 90s who have been part of the company for most of their lives.”

The company, which calls itself unpaid or community theatre rather than amateur, survives entirely from ticket sales. Prices are kept low at $30 to $35. “People come because it’s affordable,” Nielsen says. “That’s a really big part of our philosophy. It’s also theatre most people are happy to see.

“You can bring your 12-year-old kid, you can bring your 90-year-old grandmother. It’s the sort of theatre everyone can enjoy.”

Show seasons, regularly sold out, can range from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire to Agatha Christie mysteries, Neil Simons comedies, the canon of Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Jane Austen adaptations and Australian classics.

Andrew Badger, 22, the newest member, who discovered the company last year during a season of Steel Magnolias, recalls being impassioned immediately.

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“The cast was amazing, the set dressing was amazing, the whole thing was phenomenal,” he says. “After the show, my friend and I discovered auditions for the next show, Plaza Suite, were the next day.

“So we auditioned, and I was cast in the play.”

This month, Badger has swapped acting to become stage manager for the Genesian’s current production, Strangers On a Train.

“No one is here for money,” he says. “We’re all here because of our love for the craft itself. You don’t get a lot of divas backstage.”

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Nielsen is sad to leave the Kent Street home but keenly anticipates their fresh base welcoming the regular crowds and members old and new.

“There’s a role for anyone who wants to be involved,” he says. “This is a place you can learn skills, whether it’s acting, sound and lighting, publicity, management.

“You don’t have to be interested in being an actor; you just have be interested in being part of a group that absolutely loves theatre.”

Strangers On a Train is at the Genesian Theatre until April 20.

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