That's it folks!
Sadie Flynn Comes to Big Oak has had it's closing night at the newly renovated St Paul's Centre in Orillia and now this fellah is done.
I bid a fond farewell to Orillia Theatre.
Double R Productions will continue for my Online stations Swisssh and Starlite- but not for theatre.
Why I am "retiring" from theatre?
Cripes, I could make a list.
Money, gossip, backstabbing, Divas, Diva -Dons, little support, few bums in seats...
I could go on and on but why?
I did a bunch of shows over the past decade or more and now it's time to bring down the curtain.
$27 dollars was our ticket price this season for both "All for Nun...The 2nd Coming" and Norm Foster's "Sadie Flynn Comes to Big Oak" and yet it was a tough sell. Cheaper for groups.
We took All for Nun...The 2nd Coming to Beaverton as well as Orillia. The Beaverton shows did us in revenue-wise. We barely made what one bus tour would have given us. My Husband Tom and I are in the hole several thousand dollars. That comes from our own pockets and being retired that comes off the top of our fixed income. Not to worry, all our theatre bills will be paid but at a cost.
Advertising tanked- both on radio and in Newspapers. It cost us plenty but it didn't give us the return we expected. For a small not-for-profit theatre company who donated to non-profits, we spent a bunch. I could count on one hand the sales radio brought and the newspapers maybe- maybe, a dozen ticket sales.
Now with another summer theatre company moving in to our former space next summer, I knew it was time to quit.
No tears.
I do feel defeated however. The support in the community just wasn't there. Now, someone else can worry about getting the "bums" in the theatre.
I am through.
A big thanks to the casts and crews and the volunteers and the freebees we got from local media over the years. It was a valiant effort. Sometimes we won. Sometimes we lost.
This time...we lost.
So, with a stiff upper lip I am looking forward to spending more time with my radio stations Swisssh and Starlite and of course there's Christmas coming and travelling a bit. I gotta get back to Paris. It's been a couple of years. London's Oxford Street and Christmas Shopping is calling me as well as the quaint Christmas Market of Mainz in Germany.
I'll still be writing here on my Rob Blog. Not to worry.
Hennaway, I just thought I would let you know what's up and now as the lights dim and the curtain falls, I bid Orillia Theatre adieu.
