The city is conducting a review of the "civic theatre model" after the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company announced last Friday that it was shutting down because it was in financial trouble.
The aim of the review is to help develop a strategic plan for Vancouver Civic Theatres, the city department that operates the Orpheum, the Orpheum Annex, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza and the Playhouse.
Consultant Kathleen Speakman, who was a senior manager with arts organizations and granting agencies in Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa and Toronto, is contributing to the review. Findings will go before city council in a report in September.
Speakman recently worked with the city's finance and cultural services staff to assist the Playhouse company with its three-year plan, which included a $500,000 cash grant, forgiveness of a $426,000 debt and an annual $150,000 grant for ongoing support.
"Unfortunately, the marketplace niche for the work of the Playhouse, while of importance in our cultural sector, is suffering and their share of the public's attendance and financial support has diminished over the years," wrote city manager Penny Ballem in a memo to city council March 9, the day the Playhouse company announced its closure.
While attendance remained stable over the past 10 years, subscriptions-which provide the financial certainty and equity for an arts organization-decreased by about 50 per cent, from a high of 8,000 to 4,500 in the current season.
The accumulated debt a year ago was about $1 million. Even with the city's help in reducing the debt to $600,000, there is no money coming in to make up this gap.
"The Playhouse is out of cash," said Ballem, adding the Playhouse company would need an infusion of at least $500,000 per year-along with wiping out its deficit-to become viable and sustainable. "The mandate of the organization as determined by the senior governments' arts' councils is to be a producing theatre company and any deviation from this mandate would jeopardize funding from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the B.C. Arts Council, thereby exacerbating the financial challenges currently faced by the Playhouse."
Despite the Playhouse company's demise, the city's Civic Theatres department is working to schedule additional productions from community performing arts groups, touring companies and non-arts events to ensure the Playhouse theatre, which is located adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, continues to be used.
"The Playhouse deserves our thanks for the original and creative productions they provided, the many decades of opportunities those productions gave to performers, technical staff and theatre personnel, and the role the Playhouse played in Vancouver's larger arts community, where they helped to create an environment of support, learning and growth," Ballem concluded in her memo. "The city will work with the Playhouse and other funders to support an orderly closure of the theatre company and to develop a plan going forward for how to fill any gaps created in the cultural community. In addition, the current business review and strategic plan for the Civic Theatres will inform how we move forward and best maximize the utilization, value and impact of our cultural facilities in the coming years."
The Playhouse, originally called the Queen Elizabeth Playhouse, opened in 1961. A year later, the Playhouse Theatre Company, was formed with a mandate to provide professional live theatre in Vancouver. Other regular users of the Playhouse were the Friends of Chamber Music, Vancouver Women's Music Club, Women's Canadian Club and the now-defunct Festival Concert Society.
mhowell@vancourier.com
Twitter: @Howellings
