VPP expected to turn a profit despite slower summer season sales

Ticket sales for Victoria Playhouse Petrolia 2017 season were down compared to 2016.
A report to council by Richard Poore, director of cultural services, shows this summer $1,062,187 worth of tickets were sold. That compared to $1,095,592 the year before. Expenses were also up about $42,000.
Happy Together 1967 was the best selling performance of the year. Just under 6,400 tickets were sold  about 89 per cent of the capacity.
Portia brought in about 3,005 people, just 54 per cent capacity.
The VPP focused on Canada’s 150th birthday curating shows around the theme. It also hosted a Proud to be Canadian Series which  brought Michael Pinball Clemons, Colin Mochrie and Margaret Trudeau to town. Each of those one-day shows sold between 231 and 261 tickets.
In all, 31,130 tickets were sold this year.
There were 153 shows at Victoria Hall in 2017 including performances brought in by the Petrolia Lions and the Petrolia Community Theatre. Those shows sold another 12,888 tickets – nearly 30 per cent of the tickets sold in 2017.
While the ticket sales and total revenue are down, Poore is still forecasting a $15,920 surplus. That money goes into the reserves for theatre improvements.
While the surplus is smaller than 2016, revenue has remained relatively stable in the last three years, rebound from a $386,207 deficit in 2011.
In the last seven years, there have been four profitable seasons.