The Bluewater Summer Playhouse has a massive unpaid rent bill to the municipality of Kincardine.
It owes over 19 thousand dollars for it’s use of the Kincardine Centre for the Arts.
Council has given the group time to put its new business plan into action and then the situation will be reviewed again in six months.
The Community Arts Grant the group normally gets from the municipality will instead be put towards the rent this year.
Playhouse Treasurer Jennifer Webb says they’re taking a number of measures to increase their revenue so they can pay the bill.
She’s hoping for five thousand dollars more to come in this year from a one dollar increase on ticket prices.
Webb says major fundraising efforts are also planned, administration is being cut, and wage concessions are being negotiated for actors.
Webb says they don’t want to cut any of the student positions they have over the summer season.
She says they hire six each year, using government grants for their salaries, and it would be a loss to the community not to have them.
The group is also hoping for better tourism numbers this year to fill the seats at plays.
Webb questions if council values the Bluewater Summer Playhouse as a cultural asset to the community or as just a source of rent revenue.
Mayor Larry Kraemer says it would be a major blow to businesses in downtown Kincardine if the Bluewater Summer Playhouse disappeared.