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...did we do then? Why, we did the only thing possible and did another show. The Fifteenth Minute, a scurrilous black comedy, really gave us a chance to show what we could do. We took it around the island, and then, in a fit of extreme hubris, took it to the Maidment Theatre in Auckland. To our surprise, we actually drew an audience, and instead of losing money, as we had expected, actually turned a small profit.
While we are on the subject of profits and other matters financial, it has been noted that R&V operate without any sort of grants or sponsorship. Why do we do this? Simple. Our posters only have room for one logo and that is our one. (The one with Will Kemp waving his hankie in the air.) We hazarded our own cash on the first show. The show made money and we have never looked back. Basically, grants may look like easy money. But what are they really? You spend hours filling in a lot of snotty questions on a long and boring form. This is then sent back to some smirking cheat at Auckland City Council or bloody ‘Creative NZ’, who may, if you meet their weird criteria, dole you out a fraction of what you asked for out of money they stole from you in the first place. A good system? We beg to differ.
Sponsorship from local business is at least clean and honest money. But it too has its downside. You have to have their logo all over your promotional material for a start, and what happens if you wish to mock local matters in a pantomime? You can’t mock your benefactor while making others look silly, and that’s simply not fair. Worst of all, having a sponsor means admitting that your show would not have happened were it not for the generous support of blah blah blah. Well our shows WILL HAPPEN, regardless of who supports us. And the production values of each show will reflect the success of the previous one, rather than showing how brazen we were in begging money from hard pressed local business.
Here endeth the rant.
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