Will we be cold in cinemas in winter? Will the light on the eaves go out? These are topical questions that are heard both in circles of theater lovers and all over the world. theatre again facing a new adventure. OUR energy poverty portends the most difficult winter of recent decades in Europe and for the theater. We saw him in the summer. Although the public has been eager to see the theater since 2019, the many, many companies that went on tour in Greece did not perform as well as they started. As autumn approached, the pace of demand for tickets changed, and the world began to put pressure on energy resources. Performances were canceled and demand, according to Giorgos Lykiardopoulos, “was less in Northern Greece than in the south. In winter we will also have an oversupply, but few productions will work well.”

Meanwhile, while the theater has yet to recover from the health crisis, it is having trouble getting 20-30% rent increases. Those who paid €200 or €400 per night in a 50- or 100-person tent will receive a smaller increase. But average theatres? “I pay 2,000 euros for rent, the same for electricity, 3,000 euros for actors if you add administrative staff, etc. I want 10,000 euros a month. New additions do not stand up, we are selling father’s property, ”an accomplished director and producer with continuous activity since the 80s told us.

The competent ministries should create a free theater support network, give incentives or direct them to European programmes. let’s see what they say “K” theatrical figures for the new season.

Thassos Jordanides is the first to start today at the 300-seat Alpha Theatre, which he hosted with Talia Matika in 2020, but due to the pandemic, they reopened last year with I Want to Hold Your Hand. “With the same performance, we are optimistically starting the new year, not forgetting the difficulties that theaters are experiencing. With the problem of the energy crisis, we are once again treading into uncharted waters. Everything will be visible in the first accounts. Until the end of the year we will be walking with this show, which went well. Since the new year we have plans, but we do not know if we will follow them. This year there will be vaccinated and unvaccinated, all together. We don’t know how this will work, maybe it will prevent some vaccinated people from entering the theater or encourage many unvaccinated people. The health crisis has changed things in the theatre, and now a new crisis will bring new data. Theater is a marathon.”

change headlights

At Poria, Dimitris Tarlow has taken preventive steps “so that we can protect the building energetically with better insulation and internal improvements that will ensure energy autonomy. We are also gradually replacing – as retrofit costs are high – all headlights with the new LED technology. If electricity bills rise by more than 60%, as it sounds, it will be a very big burden for the theater. Heating is also a problem because oil isn’t cheap either and of course you can’t have a cold room. I don’t know if the government will help, but if we get to January and the bills go up tenfold, that’s going to be a huge problem that we’ll have to deal with.” He starts in early October with Gatsoti’s “Nyhiang” Gospel and is rehearsing for Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”.

“In a theater with 150-200 seats, the bill, including heating and lighting, was 1,000 euros per month. This year it will double,” emphasizes G. Likiardopoulos.

Electricity bills will be a problem, admits Vangelis Theodoropoulos, who will start work on Sergio Blanco’s Other Thebes on October 20 under his own direction. A total of fifteen performances – most joint productions – at the renovated Novy Mir Theatre, and on Mondays another one at the Carezi Theatre. “THK with three stages, the Central, the House and the Lower Hall, with 130, 50 and 50 seats, respectively, consumes a lot of electricity. All this time that we are preparing for the winter productions, because of the heat, we rehearse with air conditioning, and when we start, we will consume because of the heating. But the world always needs theater.” But it is in the issue of grants. He claims that “in the two-year and one-year programming categories, the two-year troupes were offended,” emphasizing that “with two productions, THNK received less money from the rookie troupe. The more paranoid attitude of the Ministry of Culture towards the theatre, i.e. modern culture, I haven’t experienced since the 80s.”

double cost

“In this theatrical winter, we will watch and do,” says producer Vassilis Poulantzas, who co-founded the Odu Kefalonia Theater with Betty Arvanitis in 1987. It will begin on November 3 with Eugene O’Neill’s The Long Journey of Day Through Night, directed by Dimitris Karanzas. “These are difficult years for the theatre. Think about it, we paid an average of 450 euros per month for electricity, and in the two months of April-May we received 2,200 euros. The cost of heating and electricity in winter will be catastrophic. The health crisis has already taken a toll. Three or four times we closed because someone got sick. Now more losses are expected, while there is a problem of funds and general insecurity, ”he notes.

For producer Giorgos Likiardopoulos, who has nine productions this year, the political climate of the past few weeks and the cost of the energy problem has created what he says is a dark foreboding of winter. “The society is being blackmailed, and hence the public. This can be seen in the ongoing performances that do not have much response. In a theater with 150-200 seats, the bill, including heating and lighting, was 1,000 euros per month. Operating costs will double this year. In addition, landlords who have reduced rent due to the pandemic want to return them to the pre-coronavirus situation. The Panhellenic Theater Union has asked the Minister of Energy to include theaters in the subsidy for small businesses. Hope we listen. Our goal is to invest in big shows for a limited number of performances.” The exception is “Berlin Alexanderplatz” directed by Statis Livatinos, which will “work” throughout the season.

New Arrivals

The loss in June was the closure of the Skrow Theatre, which in 2012 transformed the Pagration area. Nevertheless, new theaters are opening. Producer Vangelis Agalu, after the 60-seat Kerameikos Microtheatre, which opened in Gazi in 2020, is preparing for the opening of the 250-seat “Philip” in Kipseli. “The energy crisis will have a big impact on entertainment. It will be a very competitive year. The transformation of the former cinema into a theater was carried out according to modern standards. It will work with heat pumps, an energy saving system, LED lighting, etc.,” he emphasizes. The theater begins with Revolution, approved and directed by historian Yuval Noah Harari, directed by Yiannis Panagopoulos, followed by Shakespeare’s Robin and Twelfth Night.