The majority of decentralized theater companies «are all on the verge of financial rupture» and a group of six companies from all over the country, including ACTA-A Companhia de Teatro do Algarve, wants the central government to take urgent measures to avoid its extinction.
At issue is the lack of definition regarding support for culture, a dossier that the six regional structures want to see resolved “by September at the latest”.
ACTA director Luís Vicente explained to Sul Informação that, in recent years, "these six companies have suffered cuts in support of 30 to 60 percent or so." A percentage that only refers to support given by the General Directorate of Arts and that does not include "cuts in support from local authorities and others".
In addition to ACTA, the group of subscribers to a statement that was made public yesterday, Monday, includes the Dramatic Center of Évora, the Coimbra Night School, the Braga Theater Company, the Beiras Theater and the Regional Theater of the Serra de Montemuro.
“Nobody does anything and the State has not shown itself interested in solving the situation”, accused Luís Vicente. In addition to taking a joint position, the six signatories of the movement already have audiences scheduled "with the general director of the arts and with the secretary of state for Culture", to talk about this matter, revealed the director of ACTA.
The situation of these companies is very delicate, which has led them to warn of the fact that they are on the brink of extinction. In addition to the widespread cuts in support, there must be a reduction in the number of spectators, which, in the case of ACTA, decreased to almost half in the last year.
“There was a huge breach at the box office. Before, we had an average of spectators per show in the order of three digits. This year, the average is 61,5 spectators per show», he revealed.
Announcement from the six theater companies:
«V Festival of Decentralization Companies
Évora, June 5th to 9th, 2012
PRESS
The fifth edition of the Festival of Decentralization Companies took place in Évora, between the 5th and 9th of June, with the participation of A Escola da Noite (Coimbra), from ACTA – The Algarve Theater Company, from the Dramatic Center of Évora, Braga Theater Company, Teatro das Beiras (Covilhã) and Teatro do Montemuro. In different spaces of the Teatro Garcia de Resende, 11 sessions of seven different shows were presented, seen by around 700 spectators. The next edition will take place in Covilhã, organized by Teatro das Beiras and according to the interest shown by the respective Councilor for Culture, present at the opening of the Festival.
Keeping with tradition, the initiative fulfilled the function of meeting dozens of professionals who work in the six structures of artistic creation. The panorama is frightening: in addition to the cuts in public funding between 38 and 60% suffered in the last two years, there are delays in the liquidation of community support; inability to guarantee the national counterpart in international projects; growing difficulty in raising sponsorships; retraction of audiences; drastic reduction of the possibilities of touring through the national territory. Many municipalities, essential partners of companies over the years, are denouncing protocols and there are others that are years behind in contractual payments. As a result, there have already been dozens of redundancies (and others are planned), people working part-time are multiplying, wages are in arrears, debts to suppliers and loans, bank or personal, to deal with treasury emergencies.
In addition to all this, there remains a terrible uncertainty about the near future. The quadrennial or biennial contracts under which these companies have provided the public service that characterizes them expire at the end of December and the Government says nothing about what it wants or intends to do for the next few years. The unavailability of the Secretary of State and the Directorate-General for the Arts to even be represented in the debate organized by the Festival is just another manifestation of the contempt of the public institutions that oversee the sector, not only for the work of these six companies but for the entirety of their creations. national artistic. After, between December 2011 and January 2012, they walked around the country saying they wanted to discuss “a new financing model”, they huddled together and have remained hidden, waiting for no one to question them and as if awaiting instructions from above. With this attitude, the idea was allowed to take hold – among audiences, creative structures and even intermediate heads of the Secretary of State for Culture – that perhaps there would even be no public funding for artistic creation in Portugal. Meanwhile, the sector agonizes, becomes unstructured and unable to project anything for the next few years.
This unsustainable silence on the part of the Government was interrupted Saturday by the Secretary of State, in response to a dramatic statement by Luis Miguel Cintra. He said, throwing sand in people's eyes, that “the contests” will open in September. It is important to say that the opening of “competitions” through which the State finances artistic creation in Portugal follows the law. And that, therefore, if he thought of not opening them this year, he would at least have to present some kind of justification and take the trouble to find the legal mechanism that would allow him not to do so. And, by the way, to justify before the Assembly of the Republic and the country the way in which it intends to fulfill the constitutional purpose of guaranteeing the right “to cultural creation and enjoyment” of all citizens.
The “news” not only does not reassure us, it makes us indignant, as it reveals a lack of interest in the consequences of public disinvestment in structures such as ours, among our workers and our audiences.
In this context, the six decentralization companies identified below:
– alert the Government, the public and the general population to the fact that they are on the brink of extinction. The maintenance of the current level of funding will lead to their disappearance, given the unsustainable situation in which they find themselves;
– demand that the Government quickly clarify the deadline and conditions under which it intends to open multi-annual support competitions for artistic creation structures, namely with regard to the overall budget, number of projects to be supported and access requirements;
- defend that the process concerning the funding to be allocated in the coming years is fully concluded (and not just supposedly started) by the end of September, so that companies can adapt, safeguard the rights of their workers, prepare and make profitable its activity and look for complementary sources of funding.
Évora, June 10, 2012
The Night School – Coimbra Theater Group
ACTA – The Algarve Theater Company
Évora Dramatic Center
Braga Theater Company
Theater of Beiras
Montemuro Theater »
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