It is an understatement to say that the triple reform of governance, the aid system and the financing of the Association for the Support of Private Theater (ASTP) is being carried out with pain. In quick succession, the president of the association, Pascal Guillaume, announced his resignation, aware, he explained in a letter to his members dated November 20, that “building a consensus (…) is not obvious ». An understatement.
The City of Paris, for its part, indicated that it would no longer finance the association until real reform was implemented. It is therefore reducing its subsidy by 1.4 million euros very late in the year, out of a total initially planned of more than 3.2 million for 2024. And “the amount of the 2025 subsidy has not been decided”we clarified at Paris City Hall. Several observers see this renunciation as a fairly convenient way to make savings when the City’s budget is already very constrained to support, among others, the Théâtre de la Ville or that of the Concorde.
Since the ASTP is also financed by a 3.5% tax collected on dramatic, lyrical and choreographic shows (which generated 8.15 million euros in 2023) and by the State (up to 3.6 million), the announcement from the City of Paris necessarily places the Ministry of Culture in a rather uncomfortable position. Rue de Valois simply points out that it has been advocating for a long time for a lifting of the famous 3.5% tax, in order to increase the association’s resources.
New crisis
Where does this new crisis come from? In June, a report from the general inspection of cultural affairs very severely criticized the functioning of the association. The authors attacked a “system designed by and for Parisian theaters”. They deplored that “out of the thousand contributors to the support fund in 2022, only 53 active members of the ASTP benefit from it”. And affirmed that, in “contradiction with legal and regulatory obligations”the helpers were “reserved for ASTP members only”. Not counting the accusations concerning “locked governance”, “the major lack of transparency” in the allocation of aid and the fact that the members of the association “only imperfectly reflect the number and diversity of private theater actors in France”. Rarely had such a charge been given, forcing the association into rapid aggiornamento. Especially since the ministry indicates that “this report constitutes a road map” and promised to be vigilant so that “the best possible distribution [des aides] be considered ».
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