RSC celebrates record year

The RSC’s annual turnover grew to more than £62m last year, with box office receipts increasing by 75% to a record £31.6m. The company gave more than 1,400 performances of 25 productions to a total audience of over 1m people, 335k of whom were first time attenders. Revenue fundraising grew by 28% to reach £4.1m and trading income went up by 9% to £4.8m. At the same time, public funding from Arts Council England fell by a further £0.8m to £16.6m, and the company now generates 73% of its own income. 

This was the year that included the World Shakespeare Festival, produced by the RSC for the London Olympics, which involved more than 10k artists and 120 partner organisations. The Company’s education programmes reached more than 334k young people and its Open Stages initiative, to celebrate amateur theatre, resulted in skill-sharing between the RSC, ten partner theatres and 263 amateur companies nationwide. Artistic Director Gregory Doran said: “The regional theatres we work with across the country face more immediate challenges and we will continue to collaborate with and support them where we can.”

The Company has also announced a major gift from RSC America Board member, Mark Pigott KBE. The gift will support a forthcoming production and the RSC Endowment, the latter matched by a grant from Arts Council England’s Catalyst Fund. Catherine Mallyon, Executive Director, said: “… the fantastic figures mask some real challenges. There is significant pressure on us and on arts organisations up and down the country… Encouraging philanthropy and private investment is an important opportunity for UK arts and is essential in order for the RSC to make great theatre. Mark Pigott’s generous and significant gift is a commitment to our future, and I hope it will inspire others to join him in contributing to artistic excellence.”

The RSC’s production of Matilda The Musical continued to play to full houses in London and opened on Broadway in April. In June, the production won four Tony Awards, bringing the worldwide awards tally to 47. More than a million people have now seen Matilda and its success has made a major contribution to the financial health of the company. Doran said: “We have been fortunate that Matilda, nurtured over several years by a combination of philanthropy and public investment, has allowed us to weather, in part, the storms of funding cuts and economic downturn. We couldn’t have planned its extraordinary commercial success and yet we cannot rest on our laurels and rely on its substantial contribution forever.”