HomeMy WebLinkAboutVillage Squire, 1980-01, Page 25going ahead with plans for a youth choir.
He says the season will' not be shortened
though he's also quoted as saying the
Festival has reached its audience peak and
is spreading the number of available
patrons over more performances. And
plans for the Stage One complex of theatre
school and movie/television studio contin-
ue.
To the outsider. it's all very perplexing.
FINANCIAL PRESSURE ON
LONDON SYMPHONY
The same financial bind that grips many
theatres across Canada is if anything more
severe for Canadian syniphony orchestras.
With inflation expected to increase 11
per cent next year the Canada Council has
been granted budget increase of only 4.4
per cent meaning the stretch will be even
harder than it's been in the last couple of
years. !vlavnr Moore, chairman of the
Canada Council has announced new
restrictions on grant giving. New theatres
will not be funded and major symphony
orchestras have been given until June 1981
to reduce their accumulated deficits to less
than 30 per cent of their annual operating
budget or be cut off from Canada Council
funding entirely. .
One of the orchestras to be effected by
this policy change is the London Symphony
Orchestra (LSO) The LSO has an
accumulated deficit of about $400,000 and
must cut that to about $300.000 to get down
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to the 30 per cent mark based on its annual
budget of about $900.000. That is no mean
feat at a time when costs are soaring and
just holding the line on rising costs is a
hard task.
But LSO general manager Erling Alfee
said new projects are being started to try to
meet the big challenge the orchestra faces.
The LSO has been spreading its influence
for instance. by taking performers to
shopping malls,,a move that has increased
both interest in the orchestra and
additional ticket sales. The mall managers
have been flooded with calls of praise for
the presentations, Alfee says.
The reasoning behind the Canada
Council's new policy on deficits is that if
the symphonies can't reduce their deficits
they .obviously do not have wide
community support and thus are not
fulfilling their mandate to their commun-
ity.
WORDS OF PRAISE AND CAUTION
AT BLYTH
While the financil picture at the Blyth
Summer Festival is much brighter than at
other regional arts centres there were
words of warning delivered at the annual
meeting of the Blyth Centre for the Arts,
sponsoring organization of the" Summer
Festival and a winter program of touring
productions.
The happy side of the picture was
reported by Treasurer Robert Peck who
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stated that the small deficit of $5000
accumulated to the end of the 1978 season
was completely wiped out by the record
season in 1979. Attendance showed an
increase of 13 per cent through the regular
season and a season ending co -production
of The Death of the Donnellys with Theatre
Passe Muraille had to be held over for an
extra week of performances. The show
played to 93 per cent attendance including
matinees.
But a word of warning came from several
sources including new artistic director
Janet Amos about the pitfalls involved in
the present building program being
undertaken by the Festival to the Blyth
Memorial Hall. While the majority part of
funding is already in place for the $200,000
project some $60,000 must still be raised to
meet all costs. This puts a particular strain
on the board of directors who must already
raise about $20,000 a year in operating
funds to help bridge the gap between box
office and government grants and the cost
of production. Ms. Amos warned that
every effort must be made to raise the
money quickly. It was also pointed out that
heavy interest rates mean carrying a deficit
is an expensive proposition these days.
Other than that souring note, however, it
was an upbeat membership meeting that
returned Mrs. Sheila Richards to a second
term as president of the organization and
made plans for the 1980 season and the
1980-81 winter program. 0
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January 1980. Village Squire 23