Freo theatre keeps good company

Creating and maintaining close ties to the business community has helped Fremantle Theatre Company navigate much of the drama associated with COVID’s impact on the arts in Western Australia.

FTC was launched in late 2020, amid a performance and funding crisis in the performing arts sector due to COVID restrictions.

Among its key goals was to provide employment opportunities to those who had lost their jobs elsewhere due to the pandemic.

With the support of founding sponsors Porsche Centre Perth and Agora Property Group, and later Lotterywest, the FTC first performed The Other Place starring Kate Walsh at Victoria Hall in Fremantle across October and November 2020, with audience numbers limited to 3,400 across the season.

Since then, the company has performed for almost 15,000 people and pledged to host three new works per year, in addition to an annual Shakespeare in the Park event.

Recently, the FTC’s work to engage with audiences and the business sector was recognised at the Fremantle Business Awards, where it won the Excellence in Creative Industries Award.

FTC’s seasonal fundraiser for 2022 hit $133,000 at the close of December, contributing to keeping the not-for-profit company afloat until approved for government funding.

FTC has applied for several grants through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries but has yet to be successful.

Its most recent application is for $49,730 to support the touring aspects of Twelfth Night for the Shakespeare in the Park event.

Business support

In addition to Porsche Centre Perth, Agora Property Group and Lotterywest, the theatre has received donations from Hesperia, ADC_ and insurance company Gallagher.

Philanthropists such as Centuria Capital founding director Jim Litis, Packer & Co’s Mimi and Willy Packer, and Culshaw Millar Lawyers senior associate Sally Savini have also provided funding.

ADC_ director Rod Hamersley said the real estate developer engaged in sponsorship for FTC due to mutual values.

“ADC_ is honoured to support FTC’s efforts in creating work to inspire and connect the local community, which is a common goal of our groups,” Mr Hamersley told Business News.

“FTC’s focus on WA talent makes it unique in the local industry, and we also like that.”

Lawyer Sally Savini said her donation to FTC was motivated by the desire to support local talent.

“We’re theatregoers, we love theatre and the arts, and supporting local artists is our real incentive for donating,” she said.

“I think they’re a very talented group of local artists.

“I love Fremantle and love supporting its growth to become a vibrant place again.”

FTC board chair Michelle Prater said the ongoing support for the company by Perth businesses and individuals was due to their understanding of the vitality of the arts.

“I think for a lot of those people it’s not their first rodeo with arts sponsorship or donations, so they understand the value of art in our society,” Ms Prater told Business News.

“They believe in the team that’s been created and they trust us when we say, ‘this is what we’re going to do’.

“I don’t think the average person thinks about what it’d be like if theatre wasn’t here.”

Ms Prater said the sponsorship and funding had clear flow-on benefits throughout the wider community.

“The generation of income into Fremantle is such a huge stimulus for the other businesses,” she said.

“Every time you go to the cinema or to a production, the likelihood is you’ll visit another business, whether that’s a coffee, a wine, a meal, parking or public transport.

“We’re adding to the value of the local businesses and helping to stimulate the area.”

About half of all respondents to an FTC survey of 150 contacts in August 2022 confirmed they had spent more than $50 in addition to the ticket cost.

“This is from people who perhaps might not have gone to Fremantle if not for one of our productions,” Ms Prater said.

The company’s general manager, Pippa Davis, said the survey also asked for postcodes, which elicited some encouraging responses.

“We get people from out of the state, usually from Sydney or Melbourne, perhaps visiting family here, and they come to a show of ours,” she said. 

“We get people from the regions because we’ve been touring in the regions.

“Even in Perth, we get people from Quinns Rocks all the way down to Mandurah.”

Job opportunities

Ms Prater and Ms Davis told Business News filling the employment gap in the Perth theatre industry was among the FTC’s primary goals.

“From a true theatre board perspective, we want to bring theatre that makes you feel and then makes you think,” Ms Prater said.

“My take is that I want to provide employment opportunities to stop the talent from disappearing.

“I’m talking about all the people behind the scenes who make this happen – the set people, the sound people, the lighting people, designers, cleaners, stage managers, technicians – everyone who puts the show together.”

Ms Davis said there was a significant talent drain during the pandemic, for on-stage and backstage employees.

“It was a tragedy, really,” she said.

Since 2020, FTC has provided 350 weeks and $501,000 worth of work to people who were searching for employment in theatre.

“We feel really proud of that,” Ms Prater said.

“Those people didn’t have a job at that point in time until us.”

Given that many theatre companies closed their doors during the pandemic, she said the not-for-profit FTC was likely among a handful in the world to stage performances.

“[Founder and artistic director Renato Fabretti] had this idea that had been flicking around in his head for quite a long time about creating a different sort of theatre company,” Ms Prater said.

Mr Fabretti told Business News the FTC had launched at a time when he believed people needed to reconnect with the arts, given the anxiety and stress the pandemic had caused.

“The closure of numerous theatre and theatre spaces had greatly limited the city’s expressive capabilities,” Mr Fabretti said.

“As had the opportunity for great talent to remain in WA or even consider working here when the gainful employment was so limited.

“Every day FTC shows that ‘artists at work’ is our leading KPI, and every dollar we spend ensures more actors, musicians and creative minds are paid to do what they’re great at, right here at home in WA.”

He said government funding would help maintain FTC’s delivery of employment opportunities.

“Sadly, the state government has not yet recognised what we are offering, or what we bring to the culture of Fremantle, Perth, the state of WA as a whole, or to the thriving lives of our local artists,” Mr Fabretti said.

Ms Prater said the process to secure state government funding had been challenging.

“Government funding has been non-existent for us, really,” she said.

“It gives rise to talking about corporate sponsorship and there’s a lot of focus on the really big companies, especially mining companies here in WA, but my personal belief is that there are lots of people who have the capacity to give, they just don’t know it or understand the impact it can have.”