PHOTO: with Yakovlev’s tears, congratulations and promises to the audience The National Theater starts the new season
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It has already been reported that in case Liepāja Theater does not receive financial support to eliminate the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, it may have to be suspended already in October. Liepāja Theater is a municipal capital company, therefore it did not receive financial support from the government to eliminate the consequences of the crisis caused by Covid-19.
Daiga Kļaviņa, Adviser to the Chairman of the Liepāja City Council on Public Relations, pointed out that it is expected that a meeting of the Saeima Education, Culture and Science Commission could take place in the near future, where specific possible support mechanisms for the Liepāja Theater will be decided.
After the meeting with the representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and the deputies of the Saeima Education, Culture and Science Commission and their decisions, further action steps will follow, namely the Liepāja Theater and local government talks on possible support and further action scenarios.
Kļaviņa emphasized that in August an assessment of the financial flows and general situations of all Liepāja city municipal capital companies will be performed, including the Liepāja Theater, which will additionally submit a forecast for operations by the end of the year.
According to the submitted financial flow and forecast, the municipality together with Liepāja Theater will outline specific scenarios of the “survival” plan, assembling the theater’s possibilities with the possible support of the municipality and other possible solutions.
In addition to the existing budget, Liepāja City Municipality will support the Liepāja Theater concert performance “Looking for Actors”, which will take place on August 1. Thus, trying to stimulate the creative spirits of the theater and the continuity of activities, Kļaviņa added.
Deksnis, Deputy Chairman of the Liepāja City Council for Culture and Sports, pointed out that for the time being the Liepāja Theater is the only theater in Latvia that is not a state capital company and has not received financial support due to this fact.
“There was a reasonable hope that the provision of support would not be judged by the state or local government of the theaters, but by the need to provide support to cultural heavyweights in Latvia affected by the emergency,” Deksnis said. have become the sole problem of Liepāja municipality. Deksnis expressed the hope that the work invested by the local government will result in the rational provision of support from the state to the field of culture in general, without assessing the principle – the state or local governments.
Herberts Laukšteins, Chairman of the Board of SIA “Liepājas teātris”, previously pointed out that everything possible has been done in the theater to reduce expenses. 30% of all full-time employees have become unemployed. “If there are no shows, then there are no jobs for the stage workers. We are still trying to employ actors with various projects in the virtual environment, but we do not earn any revenue from them so that the theater can work properly,” the chairman of the board described.
He stressed that the theater owes spectators 88,000 euros for purchased tickets to missed performances. In order to return this debt to the audience, the actors would have to play several performances in a row every day, which is unrealistic, admitted Laukšteins.
According to the information of “Firmas.lv”, the turnover of SIA “Liepājas teātris” last year was 775 618 euros, which, compared to 2018, had decreased by 3%. The company’s losses last year reached 30,865 euros, in previous years the company was operating at a small profit.
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