How theater companies survive financially
TP artistic director Nanding Josef
The theater season is in full swing, and will last until December.
Behind the glitter of these productions, usually a musical play, in keeping with the Filipinos’ innate love of music (and dancing) – is a lot of hard work, plus a constant struggle to keep afloat and remain financially solvent, in a field which promises a lot of rewards but seldom monetary.
Most theater companies get by with “angels” or financial backers (Friends of this and that), fund-raising campaigns, grants, sponsors, arrangements with schools, presold tickets (with each performance bought by an individual, corporation or educational institution), and the occasional hit play.
Summer workshops and tax exemptions also help.
“Donations to Peta [Philippine Educational Theater Association] are tax exempt as we are a certified NGO,” says actress-administrator Cecilia B. Garrucho, president of Peta. “Our plays are in aid of education and help classroom teachers make learning fun and more enjoyable.
Peta had a hit play recently with “CareDivas,” which the company restaged several times this year and will do so again next year. A comedy-drama-dance musical, “CareDivas” highlighted Pinoy cross-dressers who worked as caregivers by day and dance divas by night in troubled Israel. Problems affecting our OFWs were also integrated.
Celebrities like Sharon Cuneta attended the performances and helped in promoting the play.
For its part, Repertory Philippines, founded in 1967 the same year as Peta, has a big musical every year which caters to the Broadway-oriented middle class. And every performance is sponsored by a corporation or a well-off educational institution. Its main offering for this year is “Peter Pan,” which opens at the Meralco Theater on September 29.
Whenever it needs funds (which is always) Tanghalang Filipino, the resident drama company (autonomous) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, trots out its warhorse “Zsa Zsa Zaturnah: Ze Musical.”
The hilarious comedy usually casts the loyal Eula Valdes as a gay beautician who is transformed into a superwoman who battles all sorts of aliens and monsters, and saves her barangay from perdition.
Did the latest reincarnation solve Tanghalang Pilipino’s financial problems?
“No it did not but we got by,” succinctly notes actor-educator Nanding Josef, TP artistic director. “The production had a net income of P250,000, much lower than what we hoped for. We did not have corporate sponsors. We are no match to Western productions brought here in the country, in terms of getting sponsors for a show.”
The situation brightened, however, with the recent revival of the sung-thru musical “Noli Me Tangere,” libretto by National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera and music by Ryan Cayabyab, which “has cashed in money and still cashing more.”
Like Blanche Dubois, the heroine of Tennesse Williams’ famous play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” TP has always depended on the kindness of strangers. Well, not exactly strangers. The company “has always depended” on the grants from TP Board Chair Tony Boy Cojuangco, donations and other types of support from the other Board members, an annual subsidy of P1 million and other privileges from the CCP, occasional grants from the National Commission for Culture and Arts, and partnerships from some embassies.
Being a foundation and non-profit organization, TP is exempted from paying taxes for income derived from its productions. But, notes Josef, the company “remits to the Bureau of Interval Revenue the taxes withheld from staff salaries and from fees of artists.”
