Children’s Theatre Company announced Wednesday that it will reduce its 2020-21 season to just two shows in the spring of 2021, cut its budget by 50 percent and reduce staff through layoffs and buyouts. The cuts are due to the coronavirus shutdown that dropped the curtain on theaters in mid-March.
The season will begin with CTC’s original production of “Seedfolks” on March 2. It premiered at CTC in 2014 and has traveled to Seattle, Chicago, New York City and South Africa and toured Minnesota theaters. It was pre-pandemic scheduled to be at CTC this fall.
The season concludes with the musical “Annie,” which was deep into rehearsals before the shutdown and scheduled for the Minneapolis theater’s stage this past spring. “Annie” will open April 27 — more than a year after it was scheduled to run.
The theater said it would cut its budget for the 2020-21 season by 50 percent from $13 million to $6.5 million. CTC will be eliminating 15 full-time positions and furloughing 27 full-time positions, as well as nearly all part-time positions. There will be two-week furloughs for the remaining 28 staff members. Managing director Kimberly Motes and artistic director Peter C. Brosius will each be taking a 24 percent reduction in compensation.
Restricting audiences to 25 percent or 50 percent of the house is not economically feasible for the large-scale productions CTC stages, Motes said in the news release. CTC is the nation’s largest theater for young people.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on CTC, as we had to suspend and postpone over 160 performances this past spring and summer,” artistic director Brosius said the news release. “As we have been making decisions about next season, the safety of our staff, artists, and audiences has been our guiding principle and highest priority. We’ve made our plans with a commitment to ensuring the highest safety standards when we resume productions on our stages.”
The season cuts include CTC’s holiday production of “The Wizard of Oz.” The season had also included “Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
CTC also announced that this fall the theater will digitally present two popular productions from past seasons — “Last Stop on Market Street” and “Corduroy.” An additional announcement of a digital streaming partnership with theaters across the U.S. in August is expected soon.
In early May, the Guthrie Theater announced similar drastic cuts to its season, which will also be delayed until March. The Guthrie season will have three productions. And its popular holiday tradition, “A Christmas Carol,” will not take place.
