SYDNEY, N.S. — Members of a Cape Breton theatre company are taking the same creativity they put into their onstage productions and using it to fend off potential bankruptcy.
Wesley J. Colford, artistic and executive director of the Highland Arts Theatre in downtown Sydney, announced last week that tickets for all 12 mainstage productions will be free of charge if a radical new fundraising campaign is successful.
The plan is to ask members of the public to make a monthly donation to help cover their costs, and if they reach $50,000, that month’s shows will be on the house to anyone who attends.
“It’s definitely a shocking idea when you first hear it, but everybody I pitch it to, their first reaction is ‘What?’ and then within two minutes their second reaction is ‘Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense,’” said Colford, who believes the goal is achievable.
Last year, the not-for-profit professional theatre and charitable organization, hosted 36,000 people at more than 160 events, bringing in a gross revenue of $1.2 million. Of that, more than $700,000 was paid to local artists and much of the rest was invested back into the local economy.
While they entered 2020 with a $1.5-million approved budget, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant they are only able to host small events while still paying out $30,000-$50,000 a month in operational costs to maintain their building in the former St. Andrew’s Church. To make matters worse, the six-year-old company hasn’t been able to obtain operating funding from the province or the Canada Council for the Arts. As a result, they can’t access federal arts and culture emergency funding despite being shut down for the past three months and relying on ticket sales for more than 80 per cent of the overall budget.
The theatre is to receive $80,000 to upgrade infrastructure and undertake training as part of an Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency tourism funding initiative announced last week.
“It’s been awful. For so many people it’s devastating, but this is an extinction-level event for us,” said Colford, adding they will lose a minimum of $1 million in revenue this year with no guarantee that the theatre would survive to the end of 2020 without bankruptcy.
“It’s obviously not something that’s sustainable.”
However, the theatre is pushing ahead with the goal of becoming the first professional community-funded theatre in Canada through the ongoing pledge drive, which will culminate July 19 when the theatre hosts a live telethon from its website and Facebook page celebrating the company’s sixth anniversary and featuring a wide array of Cape Breton celebrities and Highland Arts Theatre performers.
“Realistically, all we need is 10,000 people to give $5 a month — it’s nothing. And if you think of the number of people in Cape Breton alone who would be interested in this — I mean we had 46,000 through our doors last year. If a quarter of them commit $5, we’ve reached that goal. We have 1,500 subscribers. If those people who are already paying about $25 a month for their usual tickets, if they just commit to $25 in donations, we’re 75 per cent of the way there today. So, it does take a bit of faith and it’s something that we need people to believe in and put their trust in, but if enough people do, even if it’s at a small level, it’s going to benefit everyone in a way that I think is so obvious in retrospect but revolutionary in action.”
In the meantime, the theatre is finding ways to entertain people — even if it means taking a loss at the box office.
For the past few weeks they’ve been hosting private movie screenings for crowds of 30 people or less. And next week, they will begin a month of public movie nights with specially curated films such as “Jurassic Park,” a one-night showing of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and the classic musical “Singing in the Rain.”
“We definitely see it first of all as a way to give back, a way to give people a bit of relief after they’ve been stuck in their homes for so long, and also to prove that we’re doing things right. We’re going slowly, we’re making sure everything is immaculately clean, and hopefully building that public trust will make people feel safe going back to a public area,” said Colford.
“Also, we can’t stand not doing things. It’s one of our curses. At the best of times, there’s barely a night when there’s not something going on in the theatre and the fact that we’ve been closed for three months is unheard of. We definitely want to be safe and we want to go slowly, but at the same time we’re already paying for so many aspects of the building and it’s going completely down the drain, so if we can bring some joy and make a special night for some people, even if it’s only 10, even if it’s only 30, that at least is us doing our job — we’re being a resource for the community and hopefully that’s just another example of the things that we do that will prove to people why this is important and why it’s worth $5, $10 or $25 a month.”
To donate to the fundraising campaign, or book tickets to a movie night, visit www.highlandartstheatre.com.
