Curtain Closes On Theatre Group
Filed Under Curtain Rods | Posted on November 11, 2008
A brief notice posted on its web site confirms the local theatre group has “ceased operations effective immediately.
“Despite positive, community-oriented aspirations, the company succumbed to overly ambitious plans for the 2008 season, a major downtown in tourism and widespread apathy,” according to the statement. “The resultant, brutal lack of cash flow delivered the coup de grace.”
The online statement concludes with the following message: “This brings to an end 22 years of ‘Sunshine’ in Orillia.”
Reached by Orillia Today, the city’s culture and heritage director said he was unaware that the group had ceased operating.
The municipally owned opera house is owed a significant sum in unpaid rental fees, said Metcalf.
The summer theatre group was led by David Fanstone, the artistic director whose long-running and similarly named Sunshine Festival Theatre Company was declared insolvent in 2005.
That organization originally operated under the umbrella of the municipality, and was separately incorporated in 2000.
It received municipal grants totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years and posted significant losses.
In 2005, the theatre company declared itself insolvent amid ongoing money troubles.
Two years later, Fanstone formed Sunshine and Company with a mandate to provide high-quality, popular theatre, musical revues, plays, and farces.
Reached on Monday, he acknowledged the company had had a difficult season, and said he had yet to develop a schedule for the coming summer when he learned Mariposa Arts Theatre would be mounting a major production in August.
“If half of the season is gone with a great big musical, it will be hard to sell my stuff against it for starters, and it would not be a Sunshine season,” he added.
While Sunshine and Company did not seek municipal grants, it did convince the city earlier this year to free up ticket sale revenues as they became available to ensure needed cash flow.
The opera house traditionally holds back ticket revenues until the end of a show’s run, at which time the production company is paid, minus the rental fee.
Council in February agreed to advance the group 80 per cent of box office receipts.
When a summer production yielded lower than projected sales, council then agreed to advance the group 100 per cent of its box office sales for the first half of the next run.
“We gave (Fanstone) as much cash flow as we had on hand that belonged to him, but I guess it just wasn’t enough,” Metcalf told Orillia Today.
He noted the theatre group held its 2007 productions in the smaller Studio Theatre, but this year moved some of its shows to the 700-seat Lightfoot Auditorium.
Tags: 22 years, ambitious plans, artistic director, aspirations, coup de grace, difficult season, farces, local theatre, mariposa, money troubles, municipal grants, opera house, orillia, popular theatre, sunshine and company, sunshine festival theatre company, sunshine season, theatre group, ticket saleRelated posts
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