Theatrical productions attract over 145,000 patrons

A total of 224 theatrical productions, ranging from opera and musicals to comedy and drama, were presented in the year 2003/2004, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

In all, 524 performances were staged with the largest amount being concerts - 37 per cent - followed by comedies with 18.3 per cent, drama - 16.9 per cent and musicals - 11.8 per cent.

A substantial number of "other" performances were held, including school activities, such as prize days, beauty contests and poetry readings.

Theatre attendance stood at 145,373. The most popular performances were musicals, comedies and concerts.

Musicals saw the highest theatre-seat utilisation hitting an occupancy of 81.1 per cent. They were followed by opera, 76.3 per cent, comedy, 66.3 per cent, and drama, 48.7 per cent.

The number of people employed in the sector stood at 45, 68.9 per cent of whom were part-timers. There were 81 volunteers involved too.

Box office receipts represented the lion's share of the income.

Income from box office stood at just over Lm0.3 million and made up 54.3 per cent of the total income that was just short of Lm0.6 million. The total income is made up of other sources including grants, subsidies and "other" income.

Theatre running costs amounted to almost Lm400,000. The largest portion of expenditure consisted of wages, making up 56.8 per cent of all the expenditure. Maintenance costs made up 21.7 per cent of the total expenditure.