It seems times are tough for both of Greater Sudbury's major English-language theatre companies.
Sudbury Theatre Centre officials admitted recently the professional theatre company is facing a major financial crunch, and is about $400,000 in debt.
Now Theatre Cambrian, a community theatre company in the city known for producing musicals and dinner theatre, says it's also having financial problems.
“I think we're in a similar situation as STC,” said Theatre Cambrian executive director Dennis Cropper. “We're in a spot where we need help. It's at the point where we have to reach out to the community.”
For the last few summers, Theatre Cambrian has held the Songs of Summer Music Festival, featuring Northern Ontario bands. The 2017 edition of the festival takes place July 28-30.
But the Friday, July 28 portion of the festival will feature something different this year.
Taking place at Memorial Park from 12 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., the SOS Save Our Theatre Music Fest will be a telethon in benefit of Theatre Cambrian.
Organizers plan to livestream the event, which will feature local musicians. The lineup will be revealed July 7, so check back to Sudbury.com for more details about this event.
“People are going to go down and do cheque presentations on stage,” Cropper said. “It's going to be basically run like any other telethon.”
Organizers hope to raise about $20,000 through the event, enough to at least bridge the gap to Theatre Cambrian's new season, when ticket money starts to flow into its coffers again.
So what's going on with Theatre Cambrian? The theatre company has a large mortgage on the former Eyre Street church it calls home. That location has needed major repairs in recent years.
“We've had to replace our boilers twice,” said Rod Bazinet, a local musician who's the vice-chair of Theatre Cambrian's board of directors, and the organizer of the SOS telethon.
“It's crazy expensive. We've had to deal with floods. It's just been one thing after another.”
Theatre Cambrian did recently receive $50,000 from FedNor to upgrade and modernize the building, including fire safety and suppression upgrades, a new boiler system, energy-efficient lighting and windows.
The theatre company's operational costs are also high, with substantial utility bills on the large building, as well as the cost of putting on productions.
“The rights for a show can be anywhere between $2,500 US up to $7,000 US, depending on the show and how long you're running it for,” Cropper said.
In its 30th season, Bazinet said Theatre Cambrian's audience base is also aging.
“It's partly on us for not being able to make it appealing to a greater population so they're coming out in stronger numbers to support us,” he said.
Cropper also blames the situation on the economy. He said many people just can't afford to go out to a show after paying their bills.
While the theatre company is having some financial troubles — Cropper declined to provide any specific numbers — he said Theatre Cambrian will still be able to operate this coming fall.
The good news is a lot of work has been done to improve Theatre Cambrian's sustainability.
Cropper, the theatre company's former board president, said he was brought on as executive director in January to oversee these measures after the late 2016 departure of former longtime executive director Mark Mannisto.
“That's why I said we're going back to basics,” he said. “One of the big basics is having a (volunteer) producer in place. We haven't had a producer for our shows in quite a few years.
“What a producer does is not only oversee the director's spending, that producer's job is also to go out and make sure there's fundraising for the show, so we're not constantly taking dollars out of operational monies.
“We've implemented that to make sure these shows aren't costing as much.”
Bazinet said he loves both Theatre Cambrian and Sudbury Theatre Centre, and wants to see both of them survive.
“It's one of the reasons I stepped back up at Theatre Cambrian,” he said. “I left two-and-a-half years ago after doing my five years on the board. When I had heard the level of financial distress they were in, it brought me back to the table.”
