ANNUAL REPORT 2017 MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 -3- CONTENTS 4 2017 In Numbers MTC On Tour 6 Chair’s Report 47 Minnie & Liraz 8 Foundation Chair’s Report 48 Melbourne Talam 10 Artistic Director’s Report 49 What Rhymes with Cars and Girls 12 Executive Director’s Report 52 NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program MTC HQ Mainstage 252 Sturt St 16 Born Yesterday Readings & MTC Initiatives Southbank VIC 3006 18 John 56 Cybec Electric 03 8688 0900 20 Faith Healer 59 MTC Initiatives 22 Three Little Words Southbank Theatre 64 Awards & Nominations 140 Southbank Blvd 24 Minnie & Liraz 26 Macbeth Southbank VIC 3006 The Company 03 8688 0800 28 Noises Off 30 Di and Viv and Rose 68 MTC Board mtc.com.au 32 Hay Fever 70 MTC Foundation Board 34 The Father 72 Melbourne Theatre Company Staff Venues 36 Vivid White 75 Corporate Partners Throughout 2017 MTC performed its Melbourne season of plays at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner 76 Donors and The Lawler, and the Fairfax Studio and Playhouse at Arts Centre Melbourne. Education 80 Financial Report 2017 Managing Editor Virginia Lovett 40 Melbourne Talam Editor Rosie Shepherdson-Cullen 42 Sharing the Light Graphic Designer Helena Turinski 44 Education Activities Cover photo Jeff Busby Production photography by Brett Boardman (Hay Fever), Jeff Busby (all other productions), Phillip Erbacher (The Father), and Rob Maccoll (Noises Off). Other photography by Jarrod Barnes, Tim Grey, James Henry and Jacinta Keefe. Melbourne Theatre Company acknowledges the Yalukit Willam Peoples of the Boon Wurrung, the Traditional Owners of the land on which Southbank Theatre and MTC HQ stand, and we pay our respects to Melbourne’s First Peoples, to their ancestors past and present, and to our shared future. MTC is a department MTC is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, MTC is a member of Live of the University its arts funding and advisory body, and by the State Government of Victoria through Performance Australia and the of Melbourne. Creative Victoria. Australian Major Performing Arts Group. -4- MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 -5- 2017 IN NUMBERS 555 215,296 56% 4 total performances total paid attendance of total revenue new Australian plays from Box Office on MTC stages 529 $29.3 million actors, creatives and total revenue 14% 8 industry professionals from other income new Australian plays developed employed through Cybec Electric $15.1 million play reading series total box office income 13% 9,940 from private donations school tickets to 3 MTC productions $4.6 million productions on tour committed to NEXT STAGE 8% Writers’ Program (including from government funding $2.3 million in kind) (net of payroll tax) 9 regional and interstate 7% venues visited on tour from corporate partnerships 8,436 kilometres travelled on tour -6- MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 -7- CHAIR’S REPORT TERRY MORAN AC Victoria is privileged Twelve productions filled our stages, support from MTC. This important them both, along with the whole MTC team, with a vibrant arts and many winning awards and selling out five-year program repositioned MTC for their tireless work in 2017. MTC is an culture scene and their seasons along the way. We staged as a champion of Australian writers and essential part of a genuinely Australian Melbourne Theatre 555 performances for audiences in Victoria, has equipped the Company with resources performing arts scene in large part because Company plays a New South Wales, Queensland and and funding dedicated to nurturing and of all the people who make up the Company. leading role. Tasmania and attracted over 215,000 developing Australian stories. Victoria and Australia is in their debt. paid attendances. In addition, three A creative company productions having premiered at MTC The Foundation also continued to support reflected in our annual played internationally in the United States, the Company’s important work in Education seasons, education Canada and the United Kingdom. and sector development through a range of programs and artist development initiatives targeted philanthropic programs, and made helps us understand who we are, where In 2017 our subscriptions numbers significant progress with plans to grow the we came from and where we may go. grew once again, making MTC the most Company’s endowment fund. I commend For 64 years we have produced exceptional subscribed theatre company nationally Jane and the Foundation Board for their theatre for audiences in Melbourne and and we achieved a box office record. work throughout the year. through this enriched lives and introduced young audiences across Victoria to the However, the reality we continue to face We have an equally active MTC Board. magic of the performing arts. is diminishing government funding coupled I must acknowledge and thank my fellow with an ever more volatile box office. board members for their expertise and In 2017 Melbourne Theatre Company had This makes commercial programming and energy in guiding the Company. In 2017 we a year marked with great successes as well private generosity more crucial than ever. said goodbye to one of our longest serving as the willingness to tackle ongoing and The policies, on which government funding members, farewelling Gillian Franklin after new challenges. of the arts rests, require serious review. an 11 year tenure in which her contributions helped build the Company. The vacancy The Board and executive team began Government neglect of developing a better was filled in October upon welcoming implementing key activities of the sense of ourselves as Australians places three new members – Larry Kamener, 2017–2021 strategic plan, including the the MTC Foundation in a vital role. Led by Dr Sharmistha Law and Susan Oliver – nationally significant NEXT STAGE Writers’ Chair Jane Hansen, the Foundation Board bringing the board to a total of 15 directors. Program that launched in June. We gained considerable momentum in 2017 also finalised negotiations for a major and reached a number of important With Artistic Director Brett Sheehy and international production, the National milestones, notably raising $2.3 million for Executive Director Virginia Lovett at the Theatre’s The Curious Incident of the Dog our NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program which helm, MTC has excellent leaders steering it in the Night-Time. was matched by $2.3 million of in-kind towards a more vital future. I congratulate -8- MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 MTC ANNUAL REPORT 2017 -9- We also renamed our intensive-drama of donors are keen to ensure that each FOUNDATION CHAIR’S course, the Betty Amsden Youth cohort of program participants has an Scholarship Course, in honour of the essential year of support at MTC, allowing REPORT legacy gift donated by the late prominent them to seize new opportunities and arts philanthropist. While attending the combat gender inequality in the arts. JANE HANSEN final session and performance of the course in September and listening to the If MTC is to continue to prosper and participants’ reflections on their time provide the range of quality plays, programs and opportunities that we do 2017 was an exciting commencing in June, our three NEXT STAGE at MTC, I was struck by the impact the today, our Foundation must play a key role time for the nascent resident writers have brought a fresh wave of experience had on both the students in securing a financially stable future for the MTC Foundation, and in creative energy to the MTC team; while our and their families. Company. By building an endowment fund, my second year as the seven commissioned writers are all well This sentiment was echoed at the MTC will be able to provide a stable source inaugural Chair, it was underway on the first draft of their new end-of-year performance for our 2017 of revenue over the longer term through every bit as thrilling, Australian plays. Indigenous Scholarship Program where careful investment of the corpus and challenging and the participants, some of whom had utilising the annual returns from that inspiring as the first. The ambitious scope of the NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program posed a formidable target travelled from as far as Halls Gap, spoke capital. Last year we made great headway We achieved a great deal in commencing for the Company and the Foundation in the of their increased confidence to pursue in solidifying our plans for growing the many new activities, strengthening new requirement to raise $2.3 million, matched study and careers in the performing arts as endowment fund and progressing this and existing relationships and making by MTC, in just under one year. However, a result of this program. This scholarship vital investment for MTC’s future. considerable strides towards long-term the commitment of the 18 visionary is part of MTC’s broader Sharing the Light We are only able to achieve all that sustainability. All with our wonderful philanthropists comprising our Playwrights initiative, supported by the Crown Resorts we do through a team effort and I must community of donors by our side, whose Giving Circle confirmed our belief that Foundation and Packer Family Foundation, acknowledge and thank the hard work ongoing support underpins all that we do. developing an Australian voice onstage was which aims to remove the barriers some of my fellow Foundation Board Members of great urgency and significance to our families face in being able to attend a live – Terry Bracks AM, Fiona Griffiths, Janette Through the generosity of our donors and cultural community. performance. philanthropic partners, we respond to Kendall, Sam Margis, Louise Myer, Leigh community need and provide pathways into An essential part of ensuring a future MTC’s commitment to equality in all guises O’Neill, Hilary Scott, Richard Tegoni, the future of Australian theatre.