“Since the pandemic, audiences and venues have been really unpredictable, and I have had very, very difficult times,” Anna Rigby, Artistic Director at Unfolding Theatre, said when talking about the current development of theatre in Northeast England. “It’s a really difficult time,” she emphasized.
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Anna Rigby was Resident Director at Northern Stage (2003-2008). In 2008, she founded Unfolding Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne.
(Credit: Anna Rigby)
Take the Northern Stage as an example. The company’s latest 2022/23 fiscal year report shows that in the past year, 49,000 tickets were sold to performances at Newcastle venue in 22/23, an increase of 63% on the previous year, but only 58% of pre-Covid audience levels.
(photo credit: Yanbo Zhang)
While total revenue (£3.08m) was in line with expectations for audience growth, it has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels or the frequency of re-entries.
Total gross income from FY2019 to FY2023
(Credit: Charity Commission for England and Wales)
Anna Robinson, Customer Sales Supervisor at Northern Stage, said that the impact of COVID-19 has been ongoing. “I know that the finances that are provided to the theatre haven’t gone up depending on the cost of wages and living crisis. So we’re receiving the same amount of funding as we received before. Obviously, ￡5 goes so much less further now than it did 5 years ago. ”
Money for the arts per se will seldom be a focus, despite the very real merit of it. The arts can and should attract funding that fits with that social agenda, but still needs more. As Simon Elliott, chairman of Northern Stage, warned in the financial report, “Whatever the source, more funding is needed or across the country in the next few years we will inevitably see many theatres close or reduce their output drastically.”
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