HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-11-28, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013. PAGE 19. Comprehensive reviewup for discussion in M-T
Stratford Festival sales up 11 per cent in 2013
And here it is!
Huron County Cultural Services Officer Rick Sickinger was
the man of the hour on Saturday as Blyth Memorial Hall
hosted the annual Huron County Cultural Symposium.
Sickinger took centre stage as he gave the audience a
sneak peek at the 2014 cultural tourism brochure. (Shawn
Loughlin photo)
With a ticket sales increase of 11
per cent – the largest since 1999 –
the Stratford Festival regained
valuable ground in 2013, exceeding
the season’s goals. Attendance
reached more than 480,000,
generating revenue from ticket sales
of $29.7 million. Though it’s very
early days, the trend seems to be
continuing with advance sales
to members up 11 per cent for
2014.
In addition to being a smashing
success at the box office, Antoni
Cimolino’s first season as artistic
director was also a huge critical
success, winning acclaim from
critics almost across the board. Five
of the season’s 12 productions were
extended to meet the demand for
tickets, including Cimolino’s sold-
out production of Mary Stuart,
which was extended an
unprecedented four times.
“We feel we’ve made a great start
in turning things around,” said
Executive Director Anita Gaffney,
reflecting on her first season as the
Festival’s top administrator. “Antoni
programmed an amazing season
featuring repertoire with great
appeal to our audiences and we
implemented a number of initiatives
to encourage longer visits, draw new
audience members and bring back
lapsed patrons. I’m relieved and
delighted these initiatives resonated
with people and succeeded on so
many fronts.”
The new forum was enormously
popular, attracting nearly 30,000
people to the 150 events held
throughout the 2013 season. The
forum was conceived to make a visit
to the Festival a more immersive
experience, giving theatregoers an
opportunity to more deeply explore
and discuss the themes of the plays.
Figures show that 47 per cent of
those who attended the forum
bought more performance tickets
than they did the previous year. In
addition to accomplishing its goal of
solidifying the Festival’s
relationship with existing patrons,
The forum also attracted a new
audience, with 13 per cent of overall
attendance coming to the Festival
expressly for forum events. (As the
forum was designed to enhance the
Stratford experience, it was
budgeted as a break-even project.
Neither the $340,000 it generated in
revenue nor its attendance numbers
are included in the figures quoted
above.)
“We are so pleased to see
attendance growing once more,”
says Cimolino, “but what has been
even more gratifying is our
audience’s response to the season.
Time and again, people have come
to me to thank me for creating an
experience that stimulates them not
just emotionally but intellectually
and spiritually as well; for
presenting plays they aren’t able to
see elsewhere; and for providing
them with a place to discuss the
productions through the forum. To
hear that we’re heading in a positive
direction and then to see that
reflected at the box office makes our
work all the more rewarding as we
prepare for 2014.”
Growth was seen across the board,
with the following notable increases:
• Lapsed patrons (who have not
attended in five years) up 76 per
cent.
• New customers up 46 per cent.
• School sales up 20 per cent.
• U.S. attendance up eight per
cent – the first increase since it
began to decline in 2003.
• Canadian attendance up 13 per
cent.
In 2013, a number of new
initiatives were introduced to make
the Festival more accessible to a
broader section of the population
and to allow a greater number of
people to see multiple performances,
giving them a richer experience.
“We wanted to make the Festival
as accessible as possible,” says
Gaffney. “To that end, we introduced
the bus between Toronto and
Stratford, which not only brought
more people to the Festival but also
made it easier for people to make
multiple visits.
“We also extended special ticket
savings as soon as our box office
opened, rather than waiting to offer
last-minute discounts. As a result we
saw an increase in the number of
shows patrons were attending, as
well as an increase in the number of
new and returning patrons.
There was also an additional benefit:
in recent years we had observed a
trend toward last-minute ticket
purchases, but this year we were
encouraged to see slightly earlier
buying behaviour. We will be adding
to our incentives to bolster these
trends.”
The new Stratford Direct bus
service running twice daily from
Toronto at a price of just $20 round-
trip was a huge success. Roughly
15,000 people used the service, and
they bought $1 million worth of
tickets. As hoped, the bus helped
attract new patrons – 53 per cent of
those riding the bus had not been to
the Festival before. It also lured a
number of patrons back to the
Festival: 13 per cent of riders had
not attended in two or more years.
Inspired by this success, the Festival
is launching a $40 bus service from
Detroit three times a week in
2014.
The Festival introduced two-for-
one Tuesdays in 2013. This incentive
provided an opportunity for almost
12,000 additional people to attend a
performance at the Festival, and 32
per cent of people who took
advantage of the two-for-one offer
were first-time visitors. The offer
drove a 30 per cent increase in
Tuesday attendance, along with a six
per cent increase in Tuesday revenue
over 2012. As a result of its success,
the program will be extended to
include Thursdays in 2014.
The Festival also started a loyalty
program in 2013, which featured
special acknowledgements, perks
and selected incentives for its best
customers. People targeted by the
program purchased $3.7 million
more in tickets than they did the
previous year.
Meanwhile, existing incentives
also saw increased sales, including
Play On, which offers 16- to 29-
year-olds $25 tickets to selected
performances – up 57 per cent – and
the Family Experience, which offers
$36 tickets to children 18 and
younger attending with an adult – up
39 per cent.
The 2013 attendance figure of
480,232 represents an 11 per cent
increase over 2012’s attendance of
432,240. In 2011, attendance dipped
below 500,000 for the first time in
almost 20 years, hitting 455,044.
Tickets for the 2014 season went
on sale to Members of the Stratford
Festival on Nov. 11. Sales to the
general public begin on Jan. 4.
For more information or to place an
order, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca
or call 1-800-567-1600.
The 2014 season runs from April
21 to Oct. 12, featuring King Lear,
Crazy for You, two versions of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, The
Beaux’ Stratagem, Man of La
Mancha, Alice Through the Looking-
Glass, Hay Fever, King John,
Mother Courage and Her Children;
Antony and Cleopatra; Christina,
The Girl King and more than 150
events in the forum.
During their Nov. 19 meeting,
members of Morris-Turnberry
Council stated they were unhappy
with some of the land-use situations
throughout the municipality.
Council’s discussions about its
Comprehensive Review, a document
that outlines existing development
areas and was put together by two
members of the Huron County
Planning Department, Carol
Leeming and Susanna Reid, raised a
few eyebrows around the council
table starting with Mayor Paul
Gowing.
Gowing was frustrated that despite
having a large surplus of residential,
commercial and industrial land,
whenever anyone came to the
municipality with the intent to
develop, Morris-Turnberry didn’t
have space for them.
“The suitability of what we have
must not be all that suitable if we
can’t get people to use it,” he said.
He also commented on the fact the
Provincial Policy Statement forces
the municipality to focus on
agriculture growth. He said that,
while agriculture growth in an
agriculture area is of course a focus,
he didn’t like being forced to ignore
other avenues.
“For a strong local economy, you
can’t put all your eggs in one basket,
and that’s what we’re looking at
here,” Gowing said.
He also commented the
municipality is working with
information that is a decade old,
stating the last time the Provincial
Policy Statement was updated was
in 2005 and an updated one had not
been produced since.
“We’re at 2014 and I think we’re
in a broken progress,” he said. “We
don’t run this council the way we
did 10 years ago, I can tell you that,
because I was there.”
Other council members were
equally frustrated with the
document, stating lands around the
former Turnberry Central Public
School should be focused on instead
of other lands which have been
designated by the comprehensive
land-use review.
Land not being properly indexed
is an issue council has been facing
for some time according to
Councillor Neil Warwick.
“I sat here for the official plan
when it was redone and we wanted
to take the urban lands out of Walton
that will never be used,” he said.
“Here they are, still on the map 10
years later. Nothing has changed and
the maps are the same.
“Why are we beating our head
against the wall and doing the same
process over and over again,” he
said.
Administrator Clerk-Treasurer
Nancy Michie stated the report she
prepared covered the issues council
had stated. She said council’s
concerns were valid and the lands
needed to be addressed.
“We recognize that there are lands
in Walton and Lower Town that are
not developable for reasons like
flood plain or simple lack of
interest,” she said. “When these
areas were set up 30 years ago for
that purpose, it looked as though that
was the approach to take, but things
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By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 28