If only the housing market were doing as well as Shakespeare Santa Cruz. The company released some end-of-season statistics today that show small but significant improvements over the 2009 season.
Overall attendance of the 2010 festival’s four plays—The Lion In Winter, Othello, Love’s Labor’s Lost and the Fringe show La Ronde—ticked up 4.6 percent over last summer to 24,886. Ticket sales notched up almost that much (4 percent) to $643,266, with subscription ticket sales climbing 47 percent. (What’s the analogy there? Futures? Durable goods? Inquiring minds….)
In prepared comments, artistic director Mario Barricelli mentioned Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s “two seasons of very conservative budgeting and planning” and noted that this time around SSC “not only increased our attendance, but raised the caliber of artist and artistry that we are able to bring to Santa Cruz.”
The tough 2009 season followed a highly publicized fundraising drive in late 2008 in which the company asked for $300,000 from the community to continue operating and got more than $400,000.
