Regional Theater: Niagara Region mainstay is in the black and making changes

By Mike Desmond

2025 was certainly a good year for the Shaw Festival.

Leadership last week told the festival’s Annual General Meeting the books closed last year in the black — not wildly so, but in the black.

On total income from ticket sales, donations and grants of $39,468,000 (Canadian) and total operating expenses of $39,296,000, there was an operating surplus of $172,000. 

That’s well down from last year’s $768,000, but still in the black.

Executive Director and CEO Tim Jennings said some things were up and some were down,

“We were down about 7% on overall attendance to shows, but up significantly on attendance to education outreach events, and our donors were an all-time at $16.6 million in private donations,” he said.

The meeting and the financial data were in the shadow of a court case which has blocked demolition of the Royal George Theatre and its replacement with a new theater, handicapped accessible and net-zero energy use.

An earlier hassle with the town council on the same issue was resolved and the work had been ready to go.

The festival is making no comment on the court case which may be decided as early this week.

The Canadian federal government is apparently about ready to throw in millions of dollars toward the Royal George replacement, on top of the tens of millions already raised.

Current schedule says opening will be for the holiday season in 2028.

The festival is juggling its theaters because the Royal George is closed, shifting back to plays in the old Court House with its better access, although Jennings says the elevator to serve the theater level is limited…but there.

Jennings says that’s important to the community’s businesses because the Court House will continue bringing people into the center of town,

“We made a big point of leasing the Court House year-round for the next few years so that we could continue to do programs on the main street. Obviously, a slightly smaller venue … 250-people a day performance vs. 330, but it’ll keep people on the main street and that’s important.”

Jennings added, “The George in a normative year is responsible for about $70 million of main street activity overall. The Shaw Festival is about $300 million worth of activity here in Niagara, and so we have to be careful about anything that would destabilize that environment, because we don’t want anybody having significant problems.”

As festival leaders explained to the meeting, the Shaw is one of the largest employers in Niagara Region.

The CEO says ticket sales so far this year are up:

“We’re nearing $500,000 ahead of our year-to-date goal. So that’s very good in terms of numbers and well ahead of last year at this point as well. So from our point of view, it looks like a good year.”

Jennings says the festival is very detailed on who buys those tickets and what led to last year’s sales problems,

“It was in family markets, which were down quite a bit across the country because young families were dealing with rising costs of gasoline, groceries and things that were particularly affected by changes to the world that are going on at the moment,” he said.

Last year’s kids show, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, didn’t do as well as hoped.

This year’s show aimed at kids is “The Wind in the Willows,” based on Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic of the same name.

Jennings points out this year’s show is in the much-smaller Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, rather than the adjacent and much larger Festival Theatre.

He points to his own experience in children’s theater,

“I’ve certainly produced and run the two largest children’s theaters in the world (Seattle Children’s Theatre and Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis),” he said. “And I would say that those kinds of titles, like The Wind in the Willows, A Year with Frog and Toad, Cinderella — all the things we’re doing this year and last year — Lion, Witch, these are all super-famous books that appeal to both adults and young people.”

One big change in the festival’s fiscal issues won’t be apparent to ticket-buyers but to the cast members and backstage technical people, the new Shaw Artists’ Village.

It combines housing, theater craft, indoor and outdoor performance spaces, education and personal development.

Jennings explains it’s paid for and will save the festival money,

“We spend about a net million dollar investment on supporting artist housing for people who don’t live here each year and those 30 units will reduce that number by close to 25%. So, it’s a really big savings to us, every year, which is great because otherwise we’re paying somebody else’s mortgage to house our artists and that’s fair for them, but it’s not great for us, especially as the prices go up.”

There’s also the problem of border issues,

“Our U.S. market was down in the early part of the year but by the end of the year, it seemed to have reconciled when we’ve gotten back to normal,” Jennings said.

Those Americans are important to both the ticket sales and the tourist economy,

“Our average Canadian household attended six plays last year. Our average American 10, so people stayed a long time. So one of the reasons we have such a big economic impact is if you’re coming to see 10 performances from Cleveland, you’re probably coming down there for a week. So, that’s a pretty good example of one of our better markets.”

Jennings says those are people who return year after year and spend a lot of money in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and that’s good for the festival and the community.

The annual meeting in the Jackie Maxwell theater made its role in performance very clear, with props from rehearsals of Funny Girl moved to the side to make way for the meeting and Sara Farb, who plays Fanny Brice, the show’s central character, performing “People” from the musical. It made it clear where all that money goes from those millions of dollars in ticket purchases and donations toward the improving outlook.