Unless there’s a turnaround, arts leaders say the city’s once-thriving sector could become a shell of its former self. 

By Joshua Chong (via The Toronto Star)

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, arts leaders across Toronto and southern Ontario knew they were staring down a tough road ahead. Their industry’s recovery wasn’t going to come overnight, nor in the mere weeks and months ahead. 

But more than two years after theatres reopened, the sector is still teetering on the brink of a crisis, and could be facing its most challenging year yet amid audience attrition, declining private support and insufficient public funding. Companies are mounting productions with smaller budgets; some are cutting programming; others that halted operations in March 2020 never returned. 

Unless there’s a turnaround in the sector, arts leaders who spoke with the Star say the once-thriving sector in Toronto — one of the largest theatre centres in the world — could become a shell of its former self. 

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, arts leaders across Toronto and southern Ontario knew they were staring down a tough road ahead. Their industry’s recovery wasn’t going to come overnight, nor in the mere weeks and months ahead. 

But more than two years after theatres reopened, the sector is still teetering on the brink of a crisis, and could be facing its most challenging year yet amid audience attrition, declining private support and insufficient public funding. Companies are mounting productions with smaller budgets; some are cutting programming; others that halted operations in March 2020 never returned. 

Unless there’s a turnaround in the sector, arts leaders who spoke with the Star say the once-thriving sector in Toronto — one of the largest theatre centres in the world — could become a shell of its former self. 

“There’s just no question that our sector is facing a tough time right now,” said Jacoba Knaapen, executive director of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), which advocates on behalf of more than 100 theatre, dance and opera companies in the city. “Everybody is seeing increased costs along with reduced or frozen revenue.” 

Soulpepper, one of Toronto’s largest not-for-profit theatre companies, quietly removed two shows from its winter and spring lineup late last year.

The first, “Ladies of the Canyon,” was to be a concert production following Canadian singer Joni Mitchell and her life in Laurel Canyon, the neighbourhood in Los Angeles that was the epicentre of Hollywood’s counterculture movement. The second production was a reimagined adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “A Doll’s House,” transporting the action to India under British rule. 

Both productions were removed in part due to financial “risk management,” said Gideon Arthurs, Soulpepper’s executive director. He noted the shows are simply postponed and Soulpepper hopes to mount them “within the next 12 months,” though exact dates have yet to be announced. 

Arthurs described the company’s past two years as “enormously challenging,” with rising production costs continuing to strain the company. He pointed to the price of softwood lumber, a staple in the theatre often used for sets. For much of 2021, lumber prices soared by more than 100 per cent year-over-year due to supply challenges caused by mill closures and wildfires. 

The venerable Factory Theatre, meanwhile, also announced the indefinite postponement of “In the Kitchen” due to “financial pressures,” according to an email sent to donors earlier this month and obtained by the Star. The play, originally slated to run for three weeks in March, was to be a world premiere production featuring four playwrights “who join forces to tackle the classic ‘kitchen sink drama’ trope.” 

The company said the decision “ensures financial and organizational stability,” and that “the current financial pressures will not impact the many other activities planned for our 2023-24 season.” With the removal of “In the Kitchen” from its lineup, Factory Theatre does not have another mainstage production scheduled for the rest of its 2023-24 season.

A spokesperson for Factory Theatre said the company could not comment on the programming change. 

In its latest publicly available financial statement filed with the Canada Revenue Agency, Factory Theatre reported a deficit greater than $70,000 in 2022. The same year, Soulpepper was nearly $1 million in the red.

Those financial challenges are also being felt by other companies in the sector. Last fall, TAPA reported that between 2022 and 2023, 44 per cent of city-funded arts and culture organizations in Toronto — including nontheatre arts companies — posted a deficit. In total, the losses amounted to roughly $13.6 million. 

But these impacts haven’t been felt equally. While some companies struggle to bring audiences back into the theatre, others have seen sellout crowds and steady growth since the pandemic reopening.

Crow’s Theatre in Toronto’s east end has mounted a string of hits, including “The Master Plan” in the fall and, most recently, “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” a musical adaptation of a section of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” that is now in its eighth week of an 11-week run after multiple extensions.

Canada’s largest repertory theatre company, the Stratford Festival, said that 2023 was a “very successful” season, though it’s not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. “We are heading into 2024 with optimism,” said executive director Anita Gaffney. The festival did not provide exact attendance figures, but said they will be available later in the spring. 

Meanwhile, Canada’s largest theatre producer, Mirvish, said its sales patterns are on par with pre-pandemic levels, noting audiences had fully returned by fall of 2022. John Karastamatis, a spokesperson for the company, described 2023 as an “excellent year” for the company, which he says boasted 45,000 subscribers to packages of shows between its main and off-Mirvish seasons.  

That the programming cuts and postponements appear to disproportionately affect new works and emerging artists is especially concerning, said independent theatre producer Derrick Chua.

“The pipeline for new emerging works is just being shrunk,” he said. “I worry about this growing backlog or just fewer number of opportunities that exist for all the artists.”

Last year, the Toronto Fringe Festival, long considered an important incubator for new works having launched shows like “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Kim’s Convenience,” warned it was in jeopardy due to lack of sufficient revenue. 

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, arts leaders across Toronto and southern Ontario knew they were staring down a tough road ahead. Their industry’s recovery wasn’t going to come overnight, nor in the mere weeks and months ahead. 

But more than two years after theatres reopened, the sector is still teetering on the brink of a crisis, and could be facing its most challenging year yet amid audience attrition, declining private support and insufficient public funding. Companies are mounting productions with smaller budgets; some are cutting programming; others that halted operations in March 2020 never returned. 

Unless there’s a turnaround in the sector, arts leaders who spoke with the Star say the once-thriving sector in Toronto — one of the largest theatre centres in the world — could become a shell of its former self. 

“There’s just no question that our sector is facing a tough time right now,” said Jacoba Knaapen, executive director of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), which advocates on behalf of more than 100 theatre, dance and opera companies in the city. “Everybody is seeing increased costs along with reduced or frozen revenue.” 

Soulpepper, one of Toronto’s largest not-for-profit theatre companies, quietly removed two shows from its winter and spring lineup late last year.

The first, “Ladies of the Canyon,” was to be a concert production following Canadian singer Joni Mitchell and her life in Laurel Canyon, the neighbourhood in Los Angeles that was the epicentre of Hollywood’s counterculture movement. The second production was a reimagined adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “A Doll’s House,” transporting the action to India under British rule. 

Both productions were removed in part due to financial “risk management,” said Gideon Arthurs, Soulpepper’s executive director. He noted the shows are simply postponed and Soulpepper hopes to mount them “within the next 12 months,” though exact dates have yet to be announced. 

Arthurs described the company’s past two years as “enormously challenging,” with rising production costs continuing to strain the company. He pointed to the price of softwood lumber, a staple in the theatre often used for sets. For much of 2021, lumber prices soared by more than 100 per cent year-over-year due to supply challenges caused by mill closures and wildfires. 

The venerable Factory Theatre, meanwhile, also announced the indefinite postponement of “In the Kitchen” due to “financial pressures,” according to an email sent to donors earlier this month and obtained by the Star. The play, originally slated to run for three weeks in March, was to be a world premiere production featuring four playwrights “who join forces to tackle the classic ‘kitchen sink drama’ trope.” 

The company said the decision “ensures financial and organizational stability,” and that “the current financial pressures will not impact the many other activities planned for our 2023-24 season.” With the removal of “In the Kitchen” from its lineup, Factory Theatre does not have another mainstage production scheduled for the rest of its 2023-24 season.

A spokesperson for Factory Theatre said the company could not comment on the programming change. 

In its latest publicly available financial statement filed with the Canada Revenue Agency, Factory Theatre reported a deficit greater than $70,000 in 2022. The same year, Soulpepper was nearly $1 million in the red.

Those financial challenges are also being felt by other companies in the sector. Last fall, TAPA reported that between 2022 and 2023, 44 per cent of city-funded arts and culture organizations in Toronto — including nontheatre arts companies — posted a deficit. In total, the losses amounted to roughly $13.6 million. 

But these impacts haven’t been felt equally. While some companies struggle to bring audiences back into the theatre, others have seen sellout crowds and steady growth since the pandemic reopening.

Crow’s Theatre in Toronto’s east end has mounted a string of hits, including “The Master Plan” in the fall and, most recently, “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” a musical adaptation of a section of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” that is now in its eighth week of an 11-week run after multiple extensions.

Canada’s largest repertory theatre company, the Stratford Festival, said that 2023 was a “very successful” season, though it’s not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. “We are heading into 2024 with optimism,” said executive director Anita Gaffney. The festival did not provide exact attendance figures, but said they will be available later in the spring. 

Meanwhile, Canada’s largest theatre producer, Mirvish, said its sales patterns are on par with pre-pandemic levels, noting audiences had fully returned by fall of 2022. John Karastamatis, a spokesperson for the company, described 2023 as an “excellent year” for the company, which he says boasted 45,000 subscribers to packages of shows between its main and off-Mirvish seasons.  

That the programming cuts and postponements appear to disproportionately affect new works and emerging artists is especially concerning, said independent theatre producer Derrick Chua.

“The pipeline for new emerging works is just being shrunk,” he said. “I worry about this growing backlog or just fewer number of opportunities that exist for all the artists.”

Last year, the Toronto Fringe Festival, long considered an important incubator for new works having launched shows like “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Kim’s Convenience,” warned it was in jeopardy due to lack of sufficient revenue. 

The financial challenges Canadian theatre organizations are facing aren’t unique, but mirror similar issues unfolding in the American theatre community, which some have characterized as in a state of “crisis.”

There, theatres of all sizes have felt the wave of programming cancellations, staff cuts and venue closures over the past four years. In all, at least 35 major theatre companies in the U.S. shuttered since the onset of the pandemic, while a bevy of others have indefinitely paused operations. 

Arthurs, who’s also chair of the advocacy committee at TAPA, said Canadian industry leaders are watching the American theatre sector closely. He warns the trends south of the border and concerning, and could play out in theatre centres across Canada. 

“There’s an active conversation happening in the sector about when we declare a state of emergency,” he said. 

The theatre sector has faced other periods of instability in recent history — from the Sept. 11 attacks to the 2008 financial crisis. But arts leaders say the COVID-19 pandemic differs from other “black swan” events: its prolonged period of social isolation immeasurably altered audience behaviour and hampered their return to the theatre. 

“People are getting over that in the same way they did after the major pandemics of earlier eras, but it takes a long time,” said Tim Jennings, executive director of the Shaw Festival. “We need to exercise social muscles that, frankly, have atrophied.”

Though many arts leaders who spoke to the Star said the future is uncertain for their companies, those in Toronto said they’re hoping additional municipal funding could give arts organizations the boost they need. 

“Unless our partners in government and in the private sector come to the table with us, we could be talking about a very, very difficult next 12 to 24 months,” said Arthurs. “Undoubtedly, that will include theatre closures, a major brain drain out of the sector, and some really precarious situations.”

The Toronto Arts Council, which supports roughly 900 artists and arts organizations through grants, is seeking a $2 million annual injection in funding for the next five years. The municipal funding body currently operates with a nearly $25 million budget, which it says does not meet current needs and is stretched thin by inflation. 

But the arts sector’s campaign for increased financial support from the city is likely to face heavy scrutiny as Toronto stares down a $1.8 billion budget shortfall and a proposed double-digit property tax hike. In public consultations for the 2024 budget, more Torontonians favour slashing funding to arts, culture, entertainment and attractions than increasing investments. 

Ultimately, Soulpepper’s Arthurs believes the theatre sector’s troubles are the same problems affecting other civic institutions. Though few have found a solution, he believes organizations need to place additional emphasis on communicating their values to the community, and focus less on solely getting patrons into their spaces. 

Theatres, Arthurs argues, should double down on their role in providing real human connections. If companies focus on that, he said, a byproduct will be financial success. 

“That’s our pathway to sustainability.”

Joshua Chong is a Toronto-based arts critic and reporter for the Star. Follow him on X: @joshualdwchong.