Summerworks is a fantastic, well-respected theatre festival which runs in Toronto every August. Earlier this week, they found out that the Department of Canadian Heritage, who had previously given them moneys from the federal granting stream, had denied their grant request for the 2011 season. It accounted for about 20% of their budget.
So why should we care about Summerworks getting their funding cut?
We shouldn’t.
I’ll wait for the outcry from the arts community to die down before I continue.
Programme funding gets cut all the time. I think the media has eagerly jumped on this one because Summerworks caught fire last season for one of its plays. They’re desperately trying to tie it in, calling it censorship. Finance minister Jim Flaherty said “no organization should assume in their budgeting that every year the government of Canada is going to give them grants because there’s lots of competition, lots of other festivals, and there are new ideas that come along.”
So let’s get down to core issue.
Theatre can be a self-sustaining property, but it’s up to us to recognise our boundaries and work within them. It’s called show business, and we have to remember that without the business there is no show. Times are tough for everybody and I sense that this year on the whole has been much harder than most. Speaking with several of the bigger theatres across the country, I’ve found their attendance is down and they’re all working overtime to keep afloat. These are all well-known companies who consistently produce diverse, quality productions and employ thousands. So what are they doing? They’re adapting.
We can only assume that more cuts are coming. We’ve seen Ireland falling apart and Greece teetering on economic collapse. Here in Canada, we’ve been extremely lucky, though we are certainly feeling the grips of this recession. We can’t afford to live this current lifestyle, so arts, like many other industries, will be on the chopping block.
Matthew Jocelyn, the Artistic Director of The Canadian Stage Company is quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying “The very existence of theatre, in anything outside of a commercial construct, is dependent on some kind of public funding.”
I find those interesting words coming from someone whose company has been running on an average 39% attendance record. Does he then expect people’s hard earned tax dollars to subsidize an empty theatre? Doesn’t he think people are going to have a problem with that?
Theatres across the country realise that for every edgy or boundary pushing piece you have in your season, you balance it with the fun and familiar. I’m not saying you need to bookend everything with Mamma Mia or Oklahoma, but at least present something people want to see. It’s programming 101 and for some reason certain theatres in this city have chosen to ignore it; and then they wonder where the audience is.
They say “perception is reality” and an empty theatre speaks volumes.
Arts funding is important, but is it time to rethink the current system? As it stands, in this economic climate, it doesn’t seem sustainable. So how do we protect ourselves?
No matter what, the show must go on.
Summerworks is looking for public donations to help meet their budgetary needs. If you’ve got some loonies to spare, please donate here.