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weekender august 15 1987 p21 weekender rrm best homemade pasa n toronto has amved mjrthara at main street 39 main street north markham ontario phone 4164715670 in its third year markham theatre making gains by alex newman in order to make live enter- tainnment affordable and thus more attractive for the average consumer business sponsors have been appealed to in recent years the arts have enjoyed the benefit of corporate tax laws that pro vide tax breaks for sponsoring the arts and many corpora tions seek a new public image by sponsoring cultural events take the markham theatre for example with out the town of markham which constructed and oper ate the grand facility and v without the thriving business community which provides 14 per cent of the programming income ticket prices might very well be out of reach for many audiences with a fullyfledged profes sional operation staff prog ramming computerized tick et sales and reservations the markham theatres im age is no less prestigious than that of torontos more re- nowned theatre centres entering its third year of op eration the theatre is en joying its greatest ticket sales ever so far 75 per cent are sold out 20000 seats sold based on the 198788 sea son ticket sales account for a phenomenal 85 per cent of the programming income which sits at 284000 about 5100 subscriptions have been sold for the various series offered this year this translates to 20000 seats clearly the theatre is doing well the operating budget of 415000 is covered by conces sion sales of 18 per cent rental of facilities and a tax base sub sidy from the town of mar kham of 32 per cent this has not always been the case however theatre man ager marc quinn said a lot of money was lost in the first year the town first hired an ex perienced general manager cecil oneal but quinn thinks the theatre still had to take some baby steps to feel out the market quinn adds the dra maportion of the program sold very well but musical evenings such as don mes- sers jubilee werent great successes presentation and advertis ing had some serious draw backs that first year as well understated and subtle the programs were too small printed oji heavy vellum they were the size of ordinary in vitations the flyer possessed no grab appeal popular crosssection preparing for the second year oneal tried a different kind of entertainment mov ing more into theatre and selecting a more popular crosssection of musical per formers such as the rovers and an evening of gershwin a family series rounded out the list oneal had midseason dcy cided to return to schooltir complete a masters and to the markham theatre doesnt see too many dark days according to manager marc quinn above although it is a relatively small theatre mr quinn has been able to attract some big name performers and the subscription series for next fall and winter is 75 per cent sold alex newman teach acting and directing at both university of guelph and ryersdn polytechnical insti tute marc quinn clutching a degree in drama from uni versity of waterloo and armed with three years ex perience at orillias opera house filled the position he finished what oneal started adding five selections to oneals six to offer a di- verse eleven part subscription series the advertising was colourful and the flyers with subscription forms attached were welldesigned vibrant and eyecatching this season promises even r bigger and better things the program has expanded tolri- corporate a theatre series of four productions two music series with four different venues each featuring such artists as valdy the nylons murray maclauchlan and sylvia tyson the dance series features the outstand ing les ballets jazz de mon treal the family series is announced as a total sellout because the only remaining tickets are singles poor reception an interesting addition the tafelmusik series deserves some anecdotal attention when the group approached marc quinn about using the tmraffefffr flieir perform ances quinn had reservations considering the poor recep tion of certain shows in the first year of the theatres op eration he suggested that the group be included in the sub scription series his reasons while appearing generous or altruistic were in fact self- preservative i didnt want them encountering difficul ties and then never returning to the markham theatre we would lose a contract and for no good reason that series has so far sold out 45 percent he said nor does the theatre rent out only to professionals born out of the efforts of smaller theatres like the markham little thcatrejyiiowre around lojpgjjpjftitovir in imi 1 t t fl tin iv ii v funds and corporate spon sorships the large theatre space is frequently turned over to these community groups unionville high is one of the theatres biggest users says quinn special matinees according to one theatre teacher at the high school quinn often arranges special matinees of professional com panies for the exclusive view ing of the arts york prog rams held at unionville high many of the drama students there work within the theatre itself as part of a coop prog ram all schoolsthough have the option of using the theatre after arrangement and pay ment by the york region board of education corporate sponsorship has a snowballing effect with a greater increase in program ming more attention is drawn to the theatre and in turn the smaller groups gain vital exp osure another advantage to the markham theatre claims quinn is the good number of community groups who use the facility were not dark very much of the time he said wryly which of course justifies the existence of a theatre markham theatre is a com munity affair several schools in the area have used the facility for com- mencement proceedings plays in the case of unionvil le high which has no auditor ium the theatre is used for anything that requires a large space local audience as for audiences quinn re ports happily that an over whelming percentage of the audience comes from within markham including thor- nhill milliken unionville when asked to compare the markham facility to that of other regions quinn was re- luctant to comment thats a difficult and loaded question every theatre is run different ly some have no program budget to speak of which means they rely solely on per forming groups within the community who often dont have the funds to generate more ticket sales we have money set aside to organize a professional program which makes a terrific difference having the support from municipality and corpora tions enable a theatre to sche dule programs not so much with that financial bottom line in mind but with a view to enrich the cultural and artistic atmosphere and quali ty of the performances offered has the theatre lived up to expectation noaccording to marc quinn the facility has far exceeded expectations at least on the professional side as for the community en deavours which were already ongoing at the time of the theatres construction they have reported that over time a their audiences have in- f creased in numbers t2 r