Post-pandemic hibernation, declining interest in high school drama study and rising costs mean running a theatre company is not for the faint-hearted.
For Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre, this is just part of the ups and downs of its century-long economic and social ride – and there is still plenty to celebrate.
Last month the Kelvin-Grove based company became the seventh Queensland-based arts organisation to be funded under the National Performing Arts Partnership Framework.
Organisations funded under the Framework have the stability of up to eight years guaranteed state and federal government funding.
La Boite Artistic Director and CEO Courtney Stewart said the Framework was a wonderful recognition of the theatre’s cultural contribution and would allow the theatre to strategically plan for the future with a more certain financial base.
However, there was still much to be done to reach funding targets and maintain quality.
Ms Stewart said, even with the Framework funding, there was still a need to raise around two-thirds of funding from ticket sales, corporate support and donations.
This was happening at a time when it was harder to entice people out of their homes and ticket buying patterns were changing, including later and last-minute sales.
“The habits around when people purchase tickets has changed so drastically over the past three or four years due to the pandemic,” Ms Stewart told Newsreel.
“When you add that to the cost-of-living crisis it is such a white-knuckle ride particularly because the way we have to run our business means our costs are mostly up-front, so we need enough liquid resources to cover those.”
Couple this with a doubling of the costs of production (set building etc) and a societal shift from face-to-face to online entertainment and there are some serious head winds to contend with.
While audience numbers have recovered from the depth of the pandemic doldrums, the Post-COVID world is different.
“I think it’s hard to actually get people out of their homes,” Ms Stewart said. “People got so used to being at home (during the pandemic) it is still hard to entice them out of the comfort of where they live and to be in a space with other people to engage in story.
“Basically, they broke the habit and we’ve got to reset it.”
Ms Stewart is also sensing a deep tiredness in the community from the “collective trauma” of the pandemic to a point where it can be a struggle to just get through the day.
In these circumstances the motivation to find the energy to go out at the end of the day may be at an “all time low”.
Still, viewing this from a glass-half-full perspective, new opportunities might emerge.
For La Boite this will be a balance between giving people hope through uplifting performance but not walking away from promoting the challenging conversations inherent in much of its traditional repertoire.
“It’s really quite important that we do that (continue to challenge and provoke) but in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise and alienate audiences but wraps our arms around them,” Ms Stewart said.
“We have to continue to stay relevant and mobilise our audiences. We must strive to keep extending the conversations that are happening in society and to be plugged into the civic discourse.
“That sometimes means putting people into uncomfortable spaces and really challenging them around their perspectives. We want to continue to provide a space where people can grow and take on new information and potentially change their perspectives.”
Into the challenges file also comes the declining engagement in senior high school drama and the subject disappearing from some school course lists.
Thankfully drama teachers are fighting back to sustain interest and that has helped La Boite lift audience numbers in recent years and stop the audience demographic aging too dramatically.
They are also up against the mass movement of young people to virtual activities like gaming at the expense of tangible, live experiences.
This is raising new conversations about the role of the artist in our communities and how this can be reinvigorated.
“We have become so out of practise of being in conversation with each other and so out of the practise of connecting with each other outside the safety of an interface,” Ms Stewart said.
“Online you can have conversations in your own home, jump off on different tangents and then close the device and tap out when you want.
“When you engage with someone face-to-face you have to take that person in as a human being and the way you talk and engage alters depending on the information you are receiving back, the body language and the attitude.”
These are big challenges for the future. In the meantime, La Boite is sticking to its vision and DNA and staying true to its original roots as a community amateur repertory society.
“When I took over the company (in 2022) the vision that had been articulated was to be the country’s most diverse theatre company,” Ms Stewart said. “I think that sets us up from the first 100 years and into our second century of operation our vision is to change the world one story at a time – shaping the soul of the nation.”
Ms Stewart said corporate supporters in the for-profit sector seemed to derive enormous benefits from engaging with the non-profit sector and being plugged into the creative and invigorating world of the arts.
One of those corporate supporters, McCullough Robertson Lawyers (McR), has also been operating in Queensland for around 100 years.
McR COO Kim Trajer said the firm took great pride in its support for La Boite and community arts.
“La Boite’s mission to create connections between artists and their audiences aligns with our commitment to build deep and enduring relationships with both our clients and our community partners,” Ms Trajer said.
“We are proud to have supported La Boite financially, with pro bono services, and through several McR people being on their Board for nearly 15 years. This is part of being committed to our community always.”
