One of Victoria’s best theatre companies is in a financially precarious position. It’s a temporary cash squeeze — but the situation is serious.
The emergence of Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre is one of this city’s most impressive arts success stories of the past 20 years. Weathering an economic recession, Blue Bridge, now in its fifth season, not only survived — it produced superb theatre right out of the gate.
This is not hyberbole. Blue Bridge’s excellent productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (with Meg Tilly), A Streetcar Named Desire (with Thea Gill) and Death of a Salesman were on par with what you’d see in New York or London. Theatre critics and audiences raved about them.
The company is now poised to make a significant change in its business operations. The plan is practical and will ensure that, for generations to come, we will continue to enjoy Blue Bridge’s worthwhile theatrical offerings.
Unfortunately, the company’s artistic director says Blue Bridge has reached a financial bottleneck and requires immediate support. Otherwise, it may go the way of the Vancouver Playhouse, which ceased operations last year.
You can see Blue Bridge’s high quality for yourself by attending its fine production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at the McPherson Playhouse (there are two performances today and a final matinee on Sunday).
Blue Bridge artistic director Brian Richmond told me the company has reached a point where it is struggling to survive.
“To be explicit as I can, we go day by day and we go week by week, in order to try to meet our expenses,” he said. “It’s financially precarious at the moment. But we believe our future business plan is optimistic.”
Here’s what’s happening. This summer, the company is staging three shows: Uncle Vanya, Brighton Beach Memoirs and My Fair Lady. The challenge is that Blue Bridge’s production expenses — salaries for actors and crews, marketing, etc. — come up immediately. The bulk of revenues, meanwhile, will not come in until the end of the last of the three shows, Richmond said.
That’s a problem. Right now, the theatre company has no financial cushion to meet this challenge.
Ideally, a company like Blue Bridge would have access to a line of credit, say $200,000, that would allow it to overcome this. It would borrow money from its line of credit, then pay it off when revenues come in.
But Blue Bridge doesn’t have access to such credit because it lacks equity. It hasn’t paid off its own building, like the Belfry Theatre has, for example.
Blue Bridge now carries a $34,000 accumulated debt on its $1-million operating budget (whittled down from $143,000 last October). The company has reached a crisis point, says its leader.
“It’s difficult to meet payroll,” Richmond added.
But aren’t arts groups pleading for money all the time? Why should we help out?
Here’s why:
• Blue Bridge produces consistently excellent work, allowing us to attend theatre classics in our backyard. And it’s a bargain. Instead of shelling out the $100-plus tickets might cost on Broadway, for instance, we pay half that price.
• Government grants have evaporated since the good old days, when arts groups might expect a third of their budgets to come from such a source. Blue Bridge receives only seven to eight per cent of its budget via government sources. Survival in the arts sector is tougher than it used to be.
• Blue Bridge’s Richmond has put his money where his mouth is. He has donated $500,000 of his own money to Blue Bridge since its inception. He has done this simply because he believes in the company and its contribution to our city’s cultural life.
• A donation to Blue Bridge is not throwing good money after a bad. In part, that is because the company is poised to move most of its operations to the Roxy Theatre. It is an eminently sensible plan that will provide a more secure financial footing. Operating out of the Roxy will be considerably cheaper than the McPherson Playhouse, its current home.
In February, a civic-minded Victoria couple loaned Blue Bridge $965,000 to purchase the Roxy, the former movie house on Quadra Street. Next season the company — if it survives the summer — will base itself there.
The move will enable Blue Bridge, now renting offices in Fan Tan Alley, to shift its offices to the Roxy. And it will stage most of its plays there (the company still plans to mount one summer production at the McPherson starting next year).
Staging plays at the Roxy will be significantly cheaper. For instance, the McPherson’s box office costs Blue Bridge a $7.50 surcharge on every ticket sold. And while the City of Victoria forgives Blue Bridge’s rent at the civic-owned facility, the company must still pay the theatre’s technical crew (which means paying union wages and a civic surcharge imposed on top of that).
It costs Blue Bridge an average of $90,000 to stage a show at the McPherson Playhouse. Richmond estimates shows at the Roxy would cost $60,000 to $70,000.
The company hopes to host touring theatre companies at the Roxy, which means more theatre in our city. Another bonus — it also plans to show movies, providing another income stream.
The Roxy, after renovations, will have 260 seats, compared to the lower level of the Mac, which has 373 (Blue Bridge uses only the Mac’s lower level). To compensate for fewer seats, theatre productions at the Roxy will have longer runs. This is another win-win, because longer runs provide more opportunity for positive word-of-mouth to spread and bigger audiences.
The money to purchase the Roxy was loaned by Michael Salomon, an entrepreneur and engineer, and his wife, Shauna Baird. She’s an actor and director who’s joined Blue Bridge’s board of directors. The couple has also offered a challenge grant of $100,000 which, if matched, would provide $200,000 for renovations to the Roxy Theatre.
These are magnanimous gestures. Baird, a native Victorian who moved back here recently with her husband, said they decided to support Blue Bridge after being impressed with the quality of theatre on offer.
Baird was, by the way, a key player in the acquisition and renovation of The Grand theatre in Calgary — a $13.5-million capital project.
There’s a difference between Victoria and cities such as Calgary. In my experience, Prairie cities tend to have more of a can-do attitude than our town. I noticed this while reporting for the Free Press in Winnipeg, another culturally dynamic city. There’s more of a “we must make it happen” attitude, partly because these towns are — let’s face it — in the middle of nowhere. You have to make your own fun.
Cities in idyllic locations such as Victoria and Vancouver can be more complacent. Nonetheless, as Baird so rightly notes: “A city has to be more than just businesses and houses.”
Folk like Richmond, Baird and others who fight for Blue Bridge’s existence are the type of people that make things happen.
They have the same civic-minded spirit as the citizens who spearheaded the building of the Royal and McPherson theatres a century ago.
Victoria’s population was much smaller — I’m sure many griped about the expense and extravagance of these buildings. Yet people pushed such projects ahead, thinking about future generations.
A similar opportunity now presents itself with Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre. I hope Victorians will not let this worthy company slip through their fingers — especially when financial stability and a bright future are within grasp.