“The label of popular theater that is given to us, private producers, I will call it something else: we are a gateway to the theater,” summarizes Mario Provencher. If I produce today, it’s because I saw Broue at 14,” illustrates the co-founder of Monarque Productions. Several private producers in Quebec put their money and their time on stage for each show. Les Agents doubles, Productions Martin Leclerc, Encore spectacle, or smaller ones like the Théâtre des Hirondelles, among others. Private producers target a wide audience. And they are the ones who arrive with Symphorien, The idiots’ dinner, The first name Or Verdictto attract spectators from the regions into the cinemas. A look at these theaters which play privately.
“When we produced Trouble on stage [en 2016-2018]80% of the public who came had never seen a theater in their life. This first step is important,” says Mario Provencher.
In Quebec, theater is divided into two worlds. “Seasonal”, subsidized theaters, which have year-round programming and contemporary creation mandates, such as the Trident, La Licorne or the Prospero.
On the other side are private theater producers. For many, they are jacks of all trades, who also work in music, humor or television.
They often take advantage of the beautiful season and the old habits of the summer theater tradition to start their ambitious comic productions there, and then set off on the road to Quebec.
The notion of risk is different. Where each “seasonal theater” has an identity that marks its creative risks, such as “exploring the imagination of women artists” at Espace Go, or presenting contemporary texts translated at Duceppe, for example, the private theater, he , seeks the broad scope.
“If we want to sell 50,000 tickets on a project, that requires us to choose it carefully. He must speak to as many people as possible,” explains Mr. Provencher. He claims to be able to sell 140,000 tickets per year. At Duceppe, for example, the “seasonal theater” which sells the most in Quebec, we sold 128,651 in 2023-2024.
The private theater also wants to reach the public through distribution – a Pier-Luc Funk in The neighbors (2023) allows us to see entire rows of young spectators arriving, illustrates Mr. Provencher.
“Tsé, taking a whole super talented cast who have just left school, it’s a risk, indeed, that we cannot run, with our expectations on the sales side,” continues the producer.
TV on stage
“In Quebec, theater is not among the concerns of 90% of people. For us, it is the inhabitants of the regions who make us live; and they will come to the theaters to see what they like on TV,” says the founder of Productions Martin Leclerc, who initially worked only in music.
For this producer who added theater to his box four years ago, with Symphoriena profitable private theater project calls for “a brand. A strong, well-known and unifying cultural reference — like Me and the other, his second theatrical production.
“The theme is important — it doesn’t have to be comical, but for summer, it’s better. You need things that are known. » Martin Leclerc speaks with full knowledge of the facts. Trans girlwritten and performed by Marie-Claude D’Aoust, debuts this week in Montreal after a premiere at the end of September in Val-Morin. At least known.
“We want to try documentary theater, to diversify. And above all to reach another type of audience, younger, and work with other creators. It’s really very difficult. It’s prohibitively expensive to do. »
“It’s more complex, especially for marketing,” continues Mr. Leclerc. Trans girl is a more difficult subject to accept. We have the network to get there, but we have to work hard. » The calendar of upcoming performances only announces Quebec, Lac-Mégantic, Terrebonne and Saguenay.
“We want to develop this niche, we are going to try again on a few projects”, including Science Po 101, treatise on insubordinationwith Catherine Dorion. “This is where I want to take a creative risk,” says the business and stage man.
My little theater business
For both producers, the financial risk, which comes with each production, is not light. The rooms to be filled are large — 1000 seats. Marketing and advertising often begin a year in advance, “while we have not yet done a single reading of the play with the actors,” says Mr. Provencher with a smile.
“We don’t have help to put on $500,000 productions like Symphorien or $600,000 as Me and the other », two huge successes, says Martin Leclerc. From the first, he says, the countdown begins: he has between a year and a year and a half to recoup his investment.
At Monarque, the expense can reach a million for a production. “The entertainment tax credits help. It’s a 20% return on your workforce, and it encourages hiring. »
“But, who knows why, we are the only ones to get paid for them after production, in the year following the first performance. In television and audiovisual, when the camera starts, on day 1, in the studio, you can already pay part of your team with that. Not us,” explains Mr. Provencher.
Even the private sector asks for help
In June 2024, private theater producers sent a letter to the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, to request support for the tour, as music and varieties benefit from.
“For around ten years, major productions have gradually stopped going to meet the regions given the high cost of travel, the financial capacity of regional theaters to accommodate them and the possibility, for the public, of “absorb ticket price increases,” wrote Mario Provencher and André Robitaille, of Monarque.
In person, Mr. Provencher is sorry. “I come from Asbestos, I’m a local guy. Before the pandemic, we arrived evenon tour, because of the scale of our shows. We went there because it was important to us, and it made our world work, it gave more copyright. »
“There, with the explosion of costs, we are in deficit. So we stopped going to Sept-Îles, Baie-Comeau, Val-d’Or. It’s more profitable to spend twenty evenings in Quebec and then return to Montreal than to walk everywhere. »
“But that means there is a danger of rapid erosion. Because I am not the only one to follow this mathematics. »
The approach to the minister was supported by Encore, ComediHa! (which bought Productions Martin Leclerc), KO Scène, Entourage, Ménage à trois and La Marjolaine, among others.
“Tour assistance is a program that exists, which is paid by reward. If we go to Chicoutimi, that gives us $2,000 for a show worth over $20,000. It pays van round trip decor. But that’s what makes our budgets balanced. And that we could continue to bring our popular theater, in the broadest sense of the term, to the regions. »