Small, Medium, Large: Theatre Companies and Issues of Scale

Abstract

‘Surviving but not thriving.’ That is the message about small to medium-sized companies that Ian McRae, Chair of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, has been delivering since 2003. In the Theatre Board Assessment Meeting Report of 2007, McRae strongly urged renewed financial support for this most important sector given the significant decrease over the last 10 years and the consequent decrease in new Australian works being produced. Without such support his prediction is that ‘considerable damage could be done to the creative infrastructure across Australia resulting in a loss of artistic vibrancy down the track that could be very difficult to recover’ (McRae, 2007:3).This paper investigates one theatre company's response to this unsettling scenario. How has the triennially-funded La Boite Theatre Company responded to this crisis? On the surviving to thriving continuum where does it see itself? What are key artistic and organisational strategies that have been developed to keep the company viable? Having completed a doctoral study in 2006 of the Company's transformational journey from 1925 to 2003, I shall in this paper re-contextualise La Boite's distinctive survival skills within the current reality of fast disappearing federally-funded support.