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Gallery Assistant

Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts
App Deadline: 22 / 05 / 2013

Office Administrator

On Screen Manitoba
App Deadline: 22 / 05 / 2013

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MTYP awash in red ink on eve of new season

The high spirits surrounding a promising new season at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People are being tempered by the financial hangover left from the last one.

"It hasn't changed much," says MTYP executive director Zaz Bajon. "We're still struggling to make ends meet. We're not out of the woods; far from it. It still doesn't look good for MTYP."

That's despite the good news coming from the box office, where ticket sales are on a record pace. Single-ticket sales have jumped 25 per cent from this time last year, while the number of season subscriptions has also increased. The season opener, Where the Wild Things Are, is already 78 per cent sold. The provincial tour is sold out and school sales are at 90 per cent.

So while the MTYP playbill is getting a strong endorsement, its financial books prompted the Manitoba Arts Council to place the company on "concerned" status.

The 2011-12 season at MTYP was a fiscal nightmare, as the 30-year-old organization struggled with a cash-flow crisis that saw it miss payroll and have its line of credit severed to the extent that it was forced to request advances on this year's grants. Eliminating its $1.8-million debt, much of it a carryover from the construction of its home at The Forks in 1999, is proving a daunting task.

With MTYP's child-size ticket prices of $15.50, up 50 cents this season, it's hard to make a dent in what it owes. Nor does it help the bottom line that capacity for Where the Wild Things Are is only 100 children.

"The solution is not coming from the box office, but fundraising," says Bajon.

"Our debt is bigger than we can deal with," adds artistic director Leslee Silverman.

 

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