In its fiftieth year, the Théâtre populaire d’Acadie (TPA) has decided to adjust its ticket prices to accommodate the widest possible audience.
Are you a theater buff, but your wallet doesn’t allow you to shell out several dozen dollars to cover the price of admission? The TPA has thought of you.
Aware of the particular financial situation in which many spectators may find themselves, the TPA will offer seven plays in “flexible ticketing” mode in 2024-2025.
The curious and lovers of the performing arts will be able to choose, as they wish, the price they wish to pay to attend the TPA plays. Four choices will be offered to them.
In the coming months, the cheapest ticket, called “discovery,” will be offered at $6.79. Then will come the “affordable” ($18.64), “regular” ($36.41) and “support” ($50) tickets.
This policy, which is unusual to say the least, has the merit of being accommodating and realistic.
Allain Roy, the company’s artistic and general director, explained in an interview Thursday that since the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences across the country have abandoned the world of theatre, if not the arts. The inflationary crisis that followed also made life difficult for the artistic world.
According to Mr. Roy, the TPA has implemented flexible ticketing, like other theatre companies elsewhere in Canada. And it seems that the process is bearing fruit.
On its website, its company announces that at $5 (plus fees), the “discovery” ticket is the perfect solution for people with “limited means” who consider the theater “unaffordable” but who like to go there because it “enriches” them culturally.
The most expensive ticket, at $50, is tailor-made for people who want to support the TPA, which celebrates its first half-century of existence in 2024.
In 2023-2024, tickets were selling for an average of $30, but Mr. Roy indicated that due to the economic situation, no theatre company can make ends meet without government assistance. Another source of financing, he added, is the private sector, when it wants to engage in patronage.
In 2024-2025, the Théâtre populaire d’Acadie will perform seven plays which, once again, will be performed on different stages across New Brunswick.
The TPA season will begin with the play Amphibien, which is scheduled to premiere on October 23 in Caraquet, and will end on April 24 and 25, 2025 with Cet été qui chantait.
