Thank you.
My name is Kendra Bator, and I'm representing Mirvish Productions, Canada's largest commercial theatre producer.
Together with Michael Rubinoff and the Canadian Commercial Theatre League, we've submitted a brief on the state of the Canadian commercial theatre sector. You've heard from our partners in the labour and not-for-profit theatre sectors of the tremendous losses, challenges and risks, not only financial, suffered by the live arts industry since theatres were shut down in March 2020. We are requesting short- and long-term supports that will contribute to the rebuilding and sustained health of the commercial theatre sector, such as access to emergency funding; government-backed insurance schemes to replace the business interruption coverage we can no longer secure for pandemic-related losses; the development of tax credit programs to incentivize the development and production of live theatre within our borders; support for encouraging diverse voices in our sector; and implementation of the recommendations proposed by the Creative Industries Coalition, so that skilled people who make theatre have financial security.
We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in programs offered to all Canadian business owners and employers. CEWS, CERS and HASCAP loans have helped us keep our offices open. However, these supports do not assist with reopening our theatres.
Despite assertions and conversations with all levels of government that our sector makes significant contributions and acknowledgement that we have fallen through the cracks in the distribution of aid, these assertions have not been validated with actual financial aid. You can imagine our frustration and disenchantment when in one such conversation in which we asked why our colleagues in the not-for-profit sector benefit from emergency grants from the federal government, when the commercial theatre sector has received none for the same activities, we were told that the impression is that commercial theatre doesn't produce Canadian stories or contribute to Canadian culture.
I'm here today to tell you a Canadian story. Mirvish Productions owns and operates four theatres in Toronto, Canada, and produces and presents internationally celebrated works, sometimes written by Canadian playwrights, composers and lyricists, sometimes performed by Canadian actors and musicians, and always enjoyed by Canadian audiences and employing Canadian theatre practitioners and driving Canadian tourism.
Over the last 35 years Mirvish Productions has employed thousands of Canadian actors, stagehands, theatre practitioners and administrators, ushers and box-office personnel; invested millions of dollars in Canadian plays and musicals; and offered education programming to tens of thousands of students in the form of workshops, study guides, post-performance talkbacks and tours.
When Mirvish Productions is operating all four of its theatres, it welcomes more than 50,000 audience members per week. Ticket sales to productions at our theatres have generated tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, and billions of dollars in economic activity in the neighbouring restaurants, hotels, retail and other sports and cultural institutions.
We accomplish this with private money and revenue from ticket sales. There's no contributed income in commercial theatre operations. If there is no box-office revenue, there is no income.
When Mirvish Productions closed its theatres, for the first time in the family's history of owning and operating theatres, in March 2020, the company's revenue was wiped out. It was not until after Come From Away closed in 2021 after a brief reopening that the outreach began to flow back to us. Since that time, we've had many conversations, and for the first time feel as though we're being heard and valued.
We now look to the upcoming production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the only production in Canada of this internationally acclaimed play. It will take $28 million to mount and another $850,000 a week to run. This is not a Canadian play, but it is a Canadian production. On a weekly basis it will employ 35 actors, 39 stagehands, seven stage managers, 35 front-of-house personnel, and 10 marketing, publicity and production personnel—all Canadian. It will welcome more than 12,000 audience members each week, 95% of whom will be Canadian, and more than 50% of whom will then spend money on Canadian restaurants and Canadian hotels and retail outlets. This production and the Canadian jobs, tourism, spending and tax revenue are imperiled by the heightened risks we now face.
We implore you to implement the recommendations in our briefing and we implore you to partner with us to craft a Canadian story about the rebuilding and brilliant reopening of the Canadian commercial theatre sector.