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<\/a>Richmond is frustrated with the abruptness of the announcement. He says his team had worked hard for the last eight months to comply and update their business model, and he says that the new restrictions were passed with no warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in the middle of a performance and we got the order that we had to shut the theatre down,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019d created a financial plan and a programming plan and we\u2019d been doing it since March 16, when we suspended our original season, so there is no way for us not to lose money because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that while not ideal, the previous restrictions were at least sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that we were going to do gangbuster numbers even if we sold out at 50 people per night, but it was going to make us sustainable. That was the point; it was possible,\u201d he says. \u201cEven that\u2019s been taken away from us now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his letter, Richmond suggested emergency funding as an alternative to reduced restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a pretty vulnerable society on a financial level and we\u2019ve received not a penny, quite literally, in terms of extraordinary funding,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is pretty serious for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that $20,000 to $25,000 in one-time funding would really make a difference to the future of the theatre, because they get less in government subsidies than larger professional theatres do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only get around 8 percent of our funding from government sources, compared to 30 percent or 35 percent for other groups,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen our earned revenue capacity is eliminated, that\u2019s what causes an existential threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Bridge is currently trying out a livestream model, but Richmond says that public response isn\u2019t as strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be perfectly honest\u2014people are not really responding to that,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, live theatre is live theatre, and the streamed version of that is not really something that is appealing to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richmond believes that storytelling is a core principle of the human cultural experience and that there\u2019s an active synergy between storyteller and listener that is strongest in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to describe, but it\u2019s very real and very palpable when you\u2019re in the presence of live [theatre],\u201d he says. \u201cThere can be a hundred of us in the presence of a storyteller, and each of us will take away a slightly different version of what the story is. I think that\u2019s quite magical, and it\u2019s something to be treasured, and I think that\u2019s what the live theatre provides us.\u201d<\/p>\n