An Auckland-based theatre company says the performing arts industry is on the brink without access to a wage subsidy or resurgence payments.
Full cast of National Youth Theatre's fundraising variety show titled 'Keeping the Lights on' in 2020 at Kiri Te Kanawa theatre in Auckland. Photo: Supplied
Every year, National Youth Theatre pays for 10,000 students from low-income schools to travel to the city to see its performances.
But with only one show in the past two years, and its latest show postponed for the second time in a year, finding money to hold on to staff has the charity and others like it on a knife-edge.
National Youth Theatre (NYT) is a charity devoted to making performing arts accessible to young people across Auckland.
Launched in 2004, each year they run two large-scale productions at Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre with a cast of 250 children and young adults aged between 7 years old and 21, no audition required.
But since the pandemic began, Covid-19 restrictions have meant they have only been able to perform one live musical, instead of the scheduled four.
Arts Minister Carmel Sepuloni responded to the Omicron outbreak by announcing a further $121 million for the arts and culture sectors, including a one-off $5000 grant for self-employed workers under the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund and a $70.7m top up to the Event Support Scheme.
After postponing their latest production, Oliver, twice, NYT was able to apply for the government's Events Transition support scheme, which covers 90 percent of 'unrecoverable costs'.
But chief executive James Doy said while this meant they could pay their tutors and suppliers, it did not cover the day-to-day cost of running their charity or holding on to key staff.
"We're doing everything we can to be creative, but there isn't any direct support for anything we're doing at the moment. There's no wage subsidy. There's no resurgence support. A little bit more support would enable us to get through this and keep doing the good work we do to next year and beyond."
The company works to provide opportunities for children from low-socio-economic backgrounds to come and see their shows through an outreach programme.
"For every production that we do, we allocate about $60,000 to bringing schools in that wouldn't otherwise be able to come. We don't just discount the tickets to zero. We fund the buses to bring them in, because we just know that otherwise those kids aren't going to be able to make it," Doy said.
Not only do they subsidise the tickets and transport for 10,000 students to come see their shows each year, but they also offer scholarships for some of those kids to perform in the show.
The usual cost to perform starts at $400 for those aged under 12, and $520 for 12 years and above. But for every four paid places, they offer one scholarship place.
They only receive a small amount of funding through Creative New Zealand, otherwise they are completely funded through donations.
If they have to cancel or postpone more shows this year, all of those opportunities for children, might be gone.
Doy said the wage subsidy and Covid-19 resurgence payment was what got them through the past two years.
"The really big organisations, like the opera and ballet, they're year-round funded by the government through various schemes, so they are going to get through. It's people like us, like Tim Bray on the North Shore, the smaller events promoters, and charities, we are sort of falling through the cracks.
"There's a lot of people in our position that just might not be around next year, depending on how things go."
First time to a theatre
One of the schools that has directly benefitted from NYT's outreach programme is Bailey Road Primary and Intermediate School in Mt Wellington.
The school is decile three, with predominantly Māori and Pasifika students.
Deputy Principal Anna Voyce said many of the children that they took to see the shows had never been into the city before, let alone into a theatre.
"You can imagine when they first walked into the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre and saw even just the scale of how big it is and the grandness that you feel when you walk into a theatre, like that was mind-blowing for them.
"It's been an opportunity for our children that has actually changed our children's lives."
She said she would be devastated if the company would not be able to provide the funding for their children to participate and see the shows.
"We've realised that the arts play a key role in our children, managing their emotional health and all the mental health effects that Covid has had. The arts curriculum and productions provides an outlet for our students to have that sense of joy."
NYT performer and programme director Cole Johnston has also seen first-hand the impacts that the charity has had on children.
"NYT has this niche and has this really important thing that they do, which is bringing these scholarship kids in and bringing lower decile schools in to come and watch performances. The work they do as a charity is just so important and it's changed so many lives from the feedback that we've had. I really hope that we're able to keep that going."
Due to the current Omicron outbreak, three-quarters of Johnston's income this year is gone as gigs and performances continue to be cancelled.
"It is definitely trying for the arts at the moment, and I think because we're not in lockdown, we're in red light, so it feels as though the rest of the world and even just the rest of New Zealand is going about and doing their own thing and being affected in some ways. But it really does feel as though the arts are just closing."
