Melbourne Theatre Company executive director and co-CEO Virginia Lovett describes the impact of the COVID on the company as "a seismic trauma".
Eleven of the 12 slated shows for 2020 were either cancelled altogether or shut down early due to the COVID crisis and restrictions in Victoria.
As a result, the company — which relies on box office and associated income for 75 per cent of its annual budget — lost $12.5 million.
"It [the figure] doesn't churn my stomach as much as it used to because I've been saying it so much," Lovett says drily.
It's a loss that the company will bear for years to come — starting with 2021, when it returns to stage with a limited program.
On Tuesday morning, the company announced 'Act 1' of its 2021 season, which will kick off on January 29 with a series of five weekend events, including semi-staged performances, play readings and previews of works in development.
This 'Summer Series' will be followed by a full return to stage in March, with two of the productions that were cancelled in 2020: Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, by award-winning Canadian writer Hannah Moscovitch (opening March 6) and Berlin by Joanna Murray-Smith (opening April 17).
"Those sets were already built; they're also both very small casts, so in terms of being able to rehearse COVID-responsibly, and then having the performers on stage, they're kind of perfect," says MTC artistic director and co-CEO Bretty Sheehy.
This is all assuming that theatre performances are viable when it comes to March.
Sheehy and Lovett are cautiously optimistic, buoyed by the announcement on Sunday that theatres in Victoria can operate at 75 per cent capacity, and the evidence of a return to almost-normal for peers around the country, including Sydney Theatre Company.
Audience enthusiasm will be necessary for the survival of MTC in more than one way: "We need high capacities in our performances to make the model viable," says Lovett.
"Because we get such small government subsidy [7 per cent of MTC's budget in 2019], we're so reliant on box office that we usually sit between 75 and 90 per cent of capacity per performance in order to make budget."
Pending COVID transmission rates and advice from the Department of Health and Human Services, MTC will announce 'Act 2' of their 2021 season in March — which Sheehy says will feature other shows from the 2020 slate as well as some new projects, including the world premiere of a contemporary Aboriginal work, yet to be announced.
In the meantime, at least two of MTC's cancelled 2020 shows will premiere elsewhere.
Sunshine Super Girl, about Australian tennis champion and Wiradjuri woman Evonne Goolagong Cawley, will make its world premiere at Sydney Festival in January; and Fun Home, a collaboration between STC and MTC, will make its Australian premiere in Sydney in April, before opening at MTC at the start of 2022.
Meanwhile, the MTC commission Golden Blood, part of their Next Stage writers initiative, will open at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company in November, in a rare partnership that will allow the smaller company to premiere the work.
Impact on programming
In a typical year, MTC has 11 mainstage productions and a smaller-scale 'education' production that tours regionally.
In 2021, there will be a maximum of eight mainstage productions.
"It's going to be a long tail of recovery — for all the companies, really; they've depleted their reserves across the country," says Lovett.
That MTC has survived and can contemplate a 2021 season is the result of cost cutting, JobKeeper, private donations, and government funding. The company was also fortunate to have reserves to dip into.
A state grant received mid-year will help the company meet new COVID-safe operating requirements (including outside bars, social distancing in foyers, and contact-less sales) and support the reduced-capacity Summer Series.
Meanwhile, a "raft of wonderful donors" are supporting the productions of Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Berlin, says Sheehy.
A recently announced grant of $1,188,149 from the Federal government's RISE program will be used to develop three new productions for live and digital presentation in 2021 and 2022.
New Australian work
What of the future of riskier work and new Australian work — such as the two plays that were cancelled in 2020 and haven't yet found an alternative berth: Slap. Bang. Kiss by Dan Giovannoni and The Heartbreak Choir by Aidan Fenessy?
Sheehy says it was important that the Summer Series showcase new Australian writing — including a new musical in development by Carolyn Burns, Tim Finn and Simon Phillips (the team behind hit musical-turned-movie Ladies in Black), and a first-draft reading of a new play by Andrea James (Sunshine Super Girl).
And he says that percentage wise, there will be more new Australian works on stage at MTC next year than any other year — though not necessarily at any risk to the bottom line.
"Our Melbourne audiences have always been hungry for new Australian writing and new Australian stories — especially stories they feel are relevant to their lives in our time and place," says Sheehy.
Lovett says MTC is also blessed by a strong subscriber base of around 5000 full-season subscribers, who not only support the new (and sometimes riskier) work, but also often prefer it.
The cost to artists and arts workers
When the Coronavirus surged in Australia in mid-March, MTC was two weeks from closing Benjamin Law's sold out stage debut Torch The Place, and one week into the season of David Williamson's Emerald City.
Both played their final shows on March 14.
Faced with an indefinite lockdown and closure of theatres, the company moved quickly and decisively to cancel almost its entire 2020 season in late March, followed in August by the remaining shows.
It also pared back to a skeleton staff and cut costs through a number of measures, including reduced hours, reduced wages (for Sheehy, Lovett and heads of department), and stand-downs.
The major casualties, arguably, were independent artists: around 350 roles for artists and arts workers were cancelled — all contract workers who were not eligible for JobKeeper.
"I don't know how long it will take our artistic community, our artists, to get over that."
Strategic investment in theatre
For Lovett, the hit to artists strengthens the imperative for MTC to rebound — and quickly.
"We do play such a role in the Victorian creative community — we hope we can bounce back as quickly and vibrantly as possible so that we can offer more employment opportunities for those artists, creatives and casuals.
"Next year is what we're calling our survival year — but we hope that from that, everything starts to return to some kind of normal, that we can cast bigger shows and have more shows."
Lovett says that for every dollar of government money invested in MTC, the company generates $11 in economic value.
She'd like to see strategic investment in the arts by the federal and state governments, in line with their approach to other industries — including agriculture and mining.
"I think people get caught up with the word subsidy. I do think it's an investment, a strategic investment," she told RN's Fran Kelly in October.
"You know, the Australia Council funding is not that much, [if] you double it, it would have a huge impact."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEyLTA4L21lbGJvdXJuZS10aGVhdHJlLWNvbXBhbnktMjAyMS1zZWFzb24tcmVib3VuZC1jb3ZpZC0xOS8xMjk1OTAwMtIBAA?oc=5
2020-12-07 21:15:00Z
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