People's Post Claremont | Rondebosch - 28 July 2020

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CLAREMONT | RONDEBOSCH

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TUESDAY 28 July 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za

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The brand image for the Baxter Coffee Angels campaign was created by the Tony award-winning Handspring Puppet Company. The campaign urges theatre lovers to “Buy the Baxter a cup of coffee every month”.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

‘We will still be here’ NETTALIE VILJOEN NETTALIE.VILJOEN@MEDIA24.COM

A

lthough no specific date has been given when The Baxter Theatre Centre will open again, patrons of the playhouse have been assured that the day will come. Fahiem Stellenboom, marketing manager at The Baxter, says they can’t wait to welcome back audiences and artists. “That is what we do. The Baxter has always been a place where artists and audiences can engage with each other. It is a convivial space of learning and entertaining.” However, Stellenboom says the reopening of the theatre is not something to be rushed into. Even though theatres were allowed to reopen from Monday 6 July, The Baxter has made the financial decision to remain closed a little longer. “A limit of 50 people or less does not make any financial sense for any theatre. It will, in fact, be financially prohibitive and cost

theatres far more without the possibility of recovering the expenses relating to staging a production during this time,” he explains. The 21:00 curfew is another obstacle. Stellenboom says it makes it difficult for theatres to operate as most shows only start at 20:00 at night. “And even with an earlier 19:30 start, it will not be possible.” But that doesn’t mean nothing is happening behind the curtain. Since the start of the lockdown, the creative team at The Baxter has been hard at work, remotely albeit. The team has launched the Baxter Coffee Angels campaign and the Baxter Radio initiative. The Baxter Coffee Angels campaign, aka the “Buy the Baxter a cup of coffee”, asks 30 000 friends, theatre and arts lovers to contribute R30 (or more, where possible) per month to The Baxter. Coupled with this campaign, the Baxter Radio initiative entails the recording of school set-works, children’s books, new South African works and classics covering English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

A total of 40 local artists were involved in making these works which are offered to radio stations as free content for their programming. In addition, these works have also been made directly available as a value-added gift to supporters of the Baxter Coffee Angels campaign. Stellenboom says so far both campaigns have been well received by the public, however, he asks theatre lovers to consider signing up for the Baxter Coffee Angels campaign if they haven’t done so already. He explains that, unlike Artscape and other theatres in South Africa, The Baxter is not funded by the national government (department of sports, arts and culture) and neither does it qualify for the National Lottery. The Baxter does receive a grant of approximately one-third of their annual operational expenses from the University of Cape Town (UCT) which is just enough to cover the salaries of permanent staff members. The rest of its expenses are paid from their annual income, which includes ticket sales,

donations, theatre rentals and interest earned on their Permanent Endowment Fund. Due to lockdown, ticket sales and theatre rentals have, of course, fallen away. Stellenboom says the carefully-considered campaign aims to ensure The Baxter’s sustainability. “The idea is for people to sign up through a monthly debit order or PayPal, and then just to forget about it,” he adds. As to when exactly theatregoers can again expect most playhouses to open, Stellenboom says it is hard to speculate. “It looks like theatres will only be open again in about October and that will come with a new set of restrictions, taking social distancing into account. That is a long time without income for artists, institutions and those who work in the industry. We will have to wait for direction from the government to see how to navigate the way forward,” he concludes. V To contribute to the Coffee Angels campaign visit http://www.baxter.co.za/BaxterCoffeeAngels.

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