In March of 2022, the YES team began operating the Sudbury Theatre Centre with Alessandro Costantini signing on as Artistic and Managing Director, Scott Denniston as General Manager, Ruthie Nkut as Director of Marketing, Frank Donato as Technical Director and Ralph McIntosh as Head of Education.
In October of 2023, YES (formerly Youth Entertaining Sudbury) and Sudbury Theatre Centre officially merged to become one entity: YES Theatre. Within this span of time, the YES team increased subscriptions by 500% and counting, reached nearly 2 million dollars in ticket sales, produced the longest running show in Sudbury’s history, built and opened a new theatre in the heart of downtown and smashed box office record after box office record.
This year was a testament to what can happen when we invest in community, when we believe in abundance and recognize that change is unavoidable and necessary.
Theatre in Canada is young, the way of working is unsustainable; the contracts are mostly short and hard to come by, the rehearsal periods grow shorter and shorter, most working actors in Canada are moving from city to city every few months. 60% of theatre union actors make less than $10,000 a year on theatre union contracts. There is a lot of important and radical work happening everywhere on stage, but where is the radical work that is taking place in regards to our structures, that is taking a microscope to the systems under which we operate?
One of our biggest takeaways this year is that the radical “work” is not always the material we perform. Sometimes it is happening as a young company examines its pay structures, its funding structures, its casting imperatives, its contract and rehearsal schedules and lengths; its very function in the community in which it operates.
Taking a critical look at all of these things has created a business unlike any in the country. A future that does not hinge itself on “the way things are done”. A place where actors born and raised in a community can grow into or return to long-term work, and work alongside Broadway actors in the same turn. A place where the audience, the demand for theatre is actually growing. Where community is ingrained into every element of the business and practices.
With Matilda closing December 30th, the STC stage will have seen more performances this year than it has in over a decade. The growth is tremendously exciting; the theatre(s) bursting at the seams: emerging artists, new donors, businesses stepping up to support, the reinvigoration of downtown and most importantly, theatre as a pillar of community.
The party is just getting started…get to the theatre starting in March 2024 for our opening show, Award Winning Play, 1939.