Sydney Theatre Company still in the red despite record touring box office
A calculated risk by STC to launch interstate tours of RBG, of Many, One, as well as Julia and The Dictionary of Lost Words to Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide as well as royalties from this week's Tony award-winning The Picture of Dorian Gray, helped bring in a record $47 million to the flagship company last year.
The haul served to soften the impacts of a $1 million drop in philanthropy to $3.5 million (after deduction of expenses) triggered by three actors' onstage pro-Palestine protests in November 2023 which prompted a donors' boycott.
But it was not enough to put the company back into the black, with STC posting an $8.7 million operating deficit at the end of 2024 or an overall loss of $565,759, after accounting for investment returns, philanthropic donations and government funding.
Despite the company's stellar stage success, STC's chief executive Anne Dunn said her company was 'not quite out of the woods'.
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The company is in discussion with its government funders for additional investment to help it become more financial sustainable and take more risk on new works necessary for the creation of future hits and income. Dunn has also called for tax breaks on preproduction expenses to fund new stage works, as occurs in London.
'There's a deficit still, and we do need to keep working to get the company to a break even or a surplus position going forward,' she said. 'No company can operate forever with deficits. We know we need to take that responsibility seriously, and we do.'
It was a tale of contrasting fortunes for the Melbourne Theatre Company, which posted a modest overall surplus of $193,790 in 2024, with about half the revenue and audiences of STC.
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