€30,000 needed to keep theatre afloat
MANAGEMENT HOPING THAT DONATIONS APPEAL CAN HELP TURN THE TIDE FOR STRICKEN VENUE
THE loss of hundreds of thousands of euro in income, combined with a lack of access to grant funding, means it could be curtains for St Michael’s Theatre unless a fundraising campaign being launched this weekend brings in tens of thousands.
The theatre’s finances are in a ruinous position after a year of being closed.
Manager Tomás Kavanagh said an appeal for donations of either €50 or 100 was made to around 100 people last weekend and this weekend the general public will be called on to support the theatre in a series of online videos.
In the videos, well-known faces from the theatre including Anna Furlong appeal to people to donate whatever they can afford to keep the theatre afloat.
It was a year ago next week when the last ticket for a performance at the theatre was sold for the opening night of New Ross Drama Festival.
Mr Kavanagh said he hopes to be able to reopen the theatre to audiences of 300 people in September when everyone who wants to get a vaccine in the country will have done so.
PEOPLE are being called on to donate up to €100 to St Michael’s Theatre to save it from closure.
The theatre’s finances are in a ruinous position after a year of being closed.
Manager Tomás Kavanagh said an appeal for donations of either €50 or €100 was made to around 100 people last weekend and this weekend the general public will be called on to support the theatre in a series of online videos.
In the videos well-known faces from the theatre including Anna Furlong appeal to people to donate whatever they can afford to keep the theatre afloat.
It was a year ago next week when the last ticket for a performance at the theatre was sold for the opening night of New Ross Drama Festival.
Mr Kavanagh said he hopes to be able to reopen the theatre to audiences of 300 people in September when everyone who wants to get a vaccine in the country will have done so.
To do this €30,000 needs to be raised.
‘We are very hopeful we can reopen in September. The shortfall to get us from the start of the year to September is €45,000. We feel we will have been able to have made savings of €30,000 so our fundraising target is €30,000.’
Normally 6,000 people would have frequented the theatre by mid-March, between the January pantomime and musicals and theatre shows in February and March.
‘ The income from that doesn’t take into account other income. There are a lot of people who come through our doors every year. We are getting very close to the first anniversary of our last ticket sold on Thursday, March 12. We were building the set for the second play on the stage when news came through from Washington from the Taoiseach that everything was going to have to close,’ Mr Kavanagh said.
Due to the way arts funding is distributed in Ireland, the theatre was unable to claim the Pandemic Unemployment Payment or Covid Recovery Supports Scheme.
Pobal funding was reinstated but the theatre has been unable to meet its costs.
‘We are unable to access the funding that should be there for us. The Arts Council has received an historically large amount of funding but we’ve been told we’re ineligible because the funding is used to support organisations that have previously been supported. We do receive some grant aid towards wages and last year we had great support from Wexford County Council which kept us going.’
Mr Kavanagh said the sole focus of theatre management is to be able to reopen in September for the autumn series of festivals: the Kennedy Summer School, New Ross Piano Festival and the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre.
He hopes to be able to bring a summer series of events to the people of New Ross again this year. ‘From our experience last year we know we can really deliver that but September is the main focus. Everything is pointing towards reopening in that kind of time frame. I am assuming that when 80 per cent of the adult population are vaccinated by June that 100 per cent will be by September and I’m assuming that means we can open.’
Having started in his role at the theatre 20 years ago next January, he hopes to be greeted full houses for the pantomime then, providing funding can be forthcoming from the public, and possibly Wexford County Council over the coming days, weeks and months.
‘ This has been the most challenging of my 20 years, not only for me but for all of the staff. We have been together, by and large, over the years and we are very used to the perils of trying to survive as a rural community theatre but the past year has been unprecedented in that regard.’
The theatre’s business model relies on receiving 50 per cent of the money needed to keep it float in grants; the other 50 per cent coming from ticket sales and concession stand income.
Its total income in 2019 came to around €600,000. ‘When half of that disappears you have problems. We do have business plans but every theatre like us has a similar funding model. There aren’t really commercially viable theatres in country towns.
‘We all rely on a mixture of in-house shows, cinema and big and small productions. Organisations like us survive year to year. If we get to the start of next year you can say the previous year was successful. We were never in a position where we’ve had to do something like this.’
He said the autumn series festivals can be run online or in the theatre, adding that plans are at an early stage to have the theatre run an online concert to mark the Saturday night AIMS choral concert, in May.