Canadian Stage Posts Fourth Consecutive Budget Surplus

In an annual report released today, Canadian Stage announced the company's fourth consecutive budget surplus following an artistically and financially successful 2014.2015 season. Under the vibrant leadership of Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn, Managing Director Su Hutchinson and Board Chair Adrian Lang, the company continues to set the stage as Toronto's premiere home for innovative contemporary performance from Canada and around the world, supported by a strong audience and donor base.

Canadian Stage posted a surplus of $100,270 for the 2015 fiscal year, decreasing its accumulated deficit by another 7 percent from the previous season.

"I am extremely proud of Canadian Stage, and what we have accomplished over the past five years. Thank you to our incredible team, our artistic partners, ever-committed board of directors, and generous donors," said Matthew Jocelyn. "In addition to showcasing visionary performances by such acclaimed Canadian artists as Robert Lepage, Stan Douglas, and Jennifer Tarver to Toronto audiences, we saw the evolution of the company's international artistic presence with exciting new commissions, collaborations and touring productions. This signals the continuation of our surge forward as a home for the best of Canadian and international performance practice today."

At the company's annual general meeting on October 7, Noreen Taylor was appointed new Board chair of Canadian Stage, taking over from Adrian Lang, chair from 2013 to 2015. Lang, Associate General Counsel at BMO Financial Group, has been a member of the board since 2009, and led the committee through a successful period of financial and artistic growth. Taylor, a member of the board since 2015, is a respected leader in Ontario's health and cultural sectors and founder of the prestigious RBC Taylor Prize.

"We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Adrian Lang for her dedication and esteemed leadership of the Canadian Stage board over these past years and welcome Noreen Taylor as Board Chair," said Managing Director Su Hutchinson. "As we look back on the success of the season past and post our fourth consecutive financial surplus, we celebrate that our flag is squarely planted as a company with a clear and current vision and look ahead to developing innovative, genre-defying works and a prescient international artistic dialogue."

Highlights from the 2014.15 Annual Report:

• Achieving an overall local and international audience reach of 112,741, the company saw a 6 percent increase in new subscribers over 2014, representing 23 percent of overall subscription revenue.

• Donor support played an important part in the financial success of the 14.15 season with a 9 percent increase in overall fundraising revenue, including a 23 percent increase in gifts from individual donors and foundations.

• Opening the 14.15 season, the overwhelmingly successful presentation of Kiss & Cry by Belgium's Michèle Anne de Mey and Jaco Van Dormael exceeded box office and audience expectations with its innovative blend of theatre, dance and live cinematography, and received the 2015 Dora Award for Best Touring production. Kiss & Cry is set to return to the Bluma Appel Theatre this Winter (Feb 4-7), followed by its brand new companion piece Cold Blood (Feb 10-14), co-commissioned and presented by Canadian Stage.

• Canadian Stage's presence on the world stage was felt with the groundbreaking co-production of Stan Douglas and Chris Haddock's Helen Lawrence touring to Munich and the prestigious Edinburgh Festival, to New York's Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Music (BAM) and Belgium's deSingel Theatre in the fall of 2015. Homegrown touring productions of the phenomenal hit Venus and Fur and Robert Lepage's Needles & Opium returned for successful repeat runs.

• The third, and expanded, incarnation of the biennial Spotlight series, Spotlight South Africa, anchored by the large scale dance piece Dominion at the Bluma Appel Theatre, broke sales records and garnered three Dora Award nominations, resulting in the most successful and well-attended festival to date.

• Over 5,000 audience members engaged in pre- and post-show programming including pre-show chats, talkbacks, school workshops, and multi-sensory "Intermission" party series. A record 15 audience engagement initiatives around Spotlight South Africa attracted over 1000 patrons. In parallel, Canadian Stage's unique artist programs, led by the York University - Canadian Stage MFA Program, continued to provide world-class training opportunities to the next generation of Toronto theatre talent.

Canadian Stage's globetrotting 15.16 season picks back up in the new year with a reimagined version of Hedda Gabler, directed by Jennifer Tarver (Jan 12 - Feb 7); the return of Kiss & Cry (Feb 4 -7), followed by the North American premiere of Cold Blood (Feb 10-14), both by Belgium's Michèle Anne de Mey and Jaco Van Dormael, and continues with Akram Khan and Israel Galván's Torobaka, a new dance piece fusing Indian kathak with Spanish flamenco (March 9 - 12) and the highly anticipated new works of one of this generation's most remarkable Canadian playwrights, Jordan Tannahill with the double bill of Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom (Apr 26 - May 15).

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