103-Article Text-327-3-11-20200511 VOL. 9, NO. 1 SPRING 2020 Crowdfunding Canadian Theatre An Exploratory Analysis of Kickstarter Data with US Comparison Mohammad Keyhani University of Calgary Safaneh Mohaghegh Neyshabouri University of Calgary Abbas Hosseini Amereii SkipTheDishes.com ABSTRACT: This study presents an exploratory and descriptive analysis of Canadian theatre projects on the Kickstarter platform, using both quantitative and qualitative data. We argue that crowdfunding is particularly relevant to arts entrepreneurship due to its emphasis on engaging an “audience” from the outset. Our quantitative analysis finds that many theatre projects in Canada are successfully raising funds on Kickstarter, with the success rate being similar to that of theatre projects in the US, but on a relatively smaller scale in terms of the amount of money raised. Only the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta have more than three theatre projects on Kickstarter within the timeframe of our data, and in total each province is able to raise about ten to forty-thousand dollars per year for theatre projects through this platform. In our qualitative analysis we find that theatre crowdfunding in Canada is geared toward small-scale and subsistence-level funding, which could be construed as somewhat in line with the traditional hesitation to fully embrace profit-making in arts entrepreneurship, but may also be due to the local nature and limited ticketing capacity of theatre projects and what they perceive to be feasibly achievable goals on Kickstarter. KEYWORDS: crowdfunding, theatre, creative media, performing arts, entrepreneurship, financing. ARTIVATE 9.1 100 Introduction: The Rise of Crowdfunding The rise of the internet and information technology has resulted in novel forms of business models around which entire new categories of businesses have formed (Afuah & Tucci 2001). Clear examples of this phenomenon that have started to change our way of life in a matter of a few short years include collaborative consumption (i.e. the sharing economy) models such as Uber, RelayRides, DogVacay and Airbnb, online marketplaces such as eBay, Alibaba, Craigslist and Kijiji, as well as crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, GoFundMe, PledgeMusic and ArtistShare. Crowdfunding can be considered a form of entrepreneurship technology, in the sense that it provides technological support that enables and empowers people to profit from providing value-adding products and services. The modern technologies of entrepreneurship substantially expand the scope of people who can become entrepreneurs thereby contributing to the democratization of entrepreneurship (Bannerman 2013). More specifically, crowdfunding compresses the value chain, allowing individuals, teams or organizations to take their offerings directly to market, when otherwise they would have to incur considerably higher costs in making payments (typically without sharing in risk and uncertainty) to players and intermediaries in other segments of the value chain before getting a product out to market. In this sense, crowdfunding reduces the separation between a creator’s role as an artist and their role as an entrepreneur, by removing the barriers in the path from making art, to engaging an audience and making money from art. However, the value of crowdfunding is not limited to the supply side. On the demand side, crowdfunding provides consumers with access to innovations and artistic productions otherwise unavailable in the market, lower prices due to removed intermediaries, and new ways to co-create value with suppliers and support non-profit causes and civic common goods projects they care about, among other benefits (Gerber & Hui 2013). Nevertheless, crowdfunding as a novel mode of business is still in somewhat of an experimental stage, and involves significant risks for both funders and fund recipients (L. M. Hughes 2013; Wells 2013). Legal frameworks that regulate crowdfunding are still in their infancy but are evolving around the globe (Coke 2017). Canada in particular has been lagging behind leading countries in crowdfunding regulation by about half a decade to a decade (NCFA 2016). Crowdfunding and Arts Entrepreneurship Arts Entrepreneurship as a field of study and education has investigated the relationship between arts and entrepreneurship, with a key question of concern being how entrepreneurship can result in financial support for artmaking. What constitutes entrepreneurship in this line of thinking has been conceptualized broadly. For example, Essig (2015, 6) suggests that arts entrepreneurship “exists on a continuum from individual artists adopting entrepreneurial habits of mind in their practice at one end to new venture creation in the creative industries at the other.” Gartner (2015, 5) has suggested that a key question for arts entrepreneurship should be “How do artists organize themselves, both in terms of how they generate art, and, in how ARTIVATE 9.1 101 what is produced, as art, is valued and exchanged?” More recently, Callander (2019) has suggested to expand the scope of arts entrepreneurship to conceptualize artmaking itself as an entrepreneurial endeavor, especially in relation to theories of effectuation and emancipation. Scherdin & Zander’s (2011, 3) definition of arts entrepreneurship encompasses this scope: “the discovery and pursuit of new art ideas, using a multitude of artistic expressions and organizational forms as vehicles by which to express and convey these ideas to the public.” The rise of crowdfunding has resulted in reduced barriers to entrepreneurship and provided new financing opportunities especially in areas like creative and performing arts, crafts and entertainment where traditional funding interest is low due to a dearth of high-growth scalable venture opportunities, but popular consumption interest is high enough for crowds to be able to make a difference. But a business financing mechanism for the arts is not the only function of crowdfunding. For many arts entrepreneurs who may not even form, let alone incorporate a company, the process of crowdfunding may comprise a substantial portion of the business aspect of their creative projects. In addition, many creators seek only subsistence funding through crowdfunding platforms, or use these platforms as a method of soliciting “donations” rather than for-profit business transactions1. While arts crowdfunding can be conceptualized as a method of providing financial support for artmaking, it can also be viewed as an organizational tool for the process of artmaking itself, and crucially, a tool for the process of engaging with the audience of artwork. In fact, the word “crowd” in crowdfunding is largely a business buzzword counterpart to the word “audience” in the arts literature. For this reason, crowdfunding is not only “as relevant” to arts entrepreneurship as other tools of entrepreneurship, but perhaps one of the most relevant technologies in the context of arts entrepreneurship. Given the above, it is no surprise that two of the first ever crowdfunding platforms to operate on a noticeable scale were ArtistShare and Sellaband, both focusing on music crowdfunding (Martinez-Canas, Ruiz-Palomino, & del Pozo-Rubio 2012). The current most popular crowdfunding platforms IndieGoGo and Kickstarter both have large numbers of creative arts projects, with the seeds of the former being motivated by the desire to fund a film or theatre production (Wikipedia 2017), and the latter being motivated by the desire to help fund musicians and music bands (Best & Neiss 2014). By some estimates, Kickstarter is now directing more funding to artists in the US than the country’s National Endowment for the Arts (MacPhee 2012). Using Nambisan’s (2017) framework regarding the impact of digital technologies on entrepreneurship, the impact of crowdfunding on arts entrepreneurship can be investigated in terms of how it opens boundaries in the processes, outcomes, and agency of arts entrepreneurship. In particular, the function of crowdfunding in audience engagement from the outset relates to the important functions of case-making and stakeholder engagement previously discussed in the arts entrepreneurship literature (Bonin-Rodriguez 2012, 2015; 1 While Kickstarter is considered a “reward-based” rather than “donation-based” crowdfunding platform. Eligible rewards can include “thank you notes” and similar items of little or no monetary value, effectively acting as donation options. ARTIVATE 9.1 102 Callander 2019). In other words, the technology of crowdfunding allows artists to undertake case-making and stakeholder engagement on a previously unprecedented scale. Many of the most active categories of crowdfunding are related to different forms of artistic media; film, music, and publishing have the first, second, and third highest number of projects on Kickstarter, respectively. Creative artists that traditionally rely more heavily on government funding are finding it increasingly difficult to finance their projects through traditional means as competition has increased, and government budgets have been cut. Therefore, many in these industries are looking to crowdfunding as an alternative source of financing, although it is widely recognized that the amount of money that is possible to raise through crowdfunding for such projects is generally low and thus best suited to small scale indie productions (Nordicity 2012). Crowdfunding is especially beneficial for start-up or emerging creative artists and producers because of its potential to generate recognition and confer much needed legitimacy for these entities. Furthermore, crowdfunding is an excellent fit for projects that have a niche audience, because such projects are much less likely to be able to attract investors looking for large profits through large markets (Nordicity 2012). Crowdfunding Theatre: Significance and Existing Literature Theatre has been argued to have a range of positive effects on society for decades (Etherton & Prentki 2006). In the early 1920’s, British theatre director Harley Granville Barker promoted the idea of “exemplary theatre” that had an educational role and contributed to the health of liberal society, thus having the nature of a public good that needs to be supported financially by government (Gjaerum 2013). Perhaps due to this primacy of an ethical and developmental role often prioritized over entertainment by theatre producers, financing has always been a challenge for theatre (Cohen 1990; D. A. Hughes 2007). It is generally recognized by most governments that arts financing involves market failure and thus needs government support (Peacock 2000). An example of market failure is the spillover effects of theatre on a community which provides benefits to non-users of the theatre without compensating the theatre for those benefits (Hansen 1997). Hence, as Etherton and Prentki (2006) point out, writing proposals to seek funding from governments, NGOs and other donors is almost second nature to arts workers. But this reliance on large donations renders theatre productions vulnerable to appropriation and undue influence by donor agendas (Balfour 2009). The significance of theatre crowdfunding is that it has the potential to be the solution that liberates theatre from these individual donor agendas, while at the same time providing a mechanism for non-users to contribute to theatre projects (Hansen 1997). Despite this significance, existing literature on theatre crowdfunding is sparse. We attempt to summarize insights from existing literature below. In a way, crowdfunding theatre projects is similar to a tradition that can be traced to the dawn of theatre. Drama originates in ancient Greece, where Dionysus, the god of vine and wine, fertility and theatre, was celebrated over the course of a few days in the Festival of Dionysus. The theatre performances of the festival were funded by the Choragi who were wealthy Greek ARTIVATE 9.1 103 citizens (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica 1998). Since the performances in the festival competed for first, second, or third place, the riches and charitability of a Choragus gave his assigned playwright an advantage over the others. When a play won the first place, the Choragus that supported its production was officially awarded the prize. It was perhaps this sense of acknowledgement by the community that encouraged the Choragus to put the utmost effort in supporting the theatre they produced. Of course, crowdfunding theatre has become much easier today thanks to platforms such as Kickstarter. However, cultural industries such as film, music, and video games are doing much better at raising funds via these platforms than do theatre projects. In explaining this phenomenon, we can draw on the distinction made by Colbert (2012) between the arts sector and cultural industries on the grounds that the nature of the products they produce is different. While the products of cultural industries can be reproduced (film, music, video), the products of arts organizations are not meant or designed for reproduction. For instance, theatre productions are bound by their location. They must be performed on a stage and unlike a music record, or the copy of a film, cannot travel to different location without hassle. As a result, there is a fundamental connection between the performing arts and their local communities (Rogers 2012). Gerber and Hui (2013) suggest that while material rewards play an important role in the motivations of crowdfunders in technology, music and film, in theatre we do not see a similar pattern. As a matter of fact, material rewards may negatively affect the crowdfunding campaigns of theatre projects. Philanthropic sponsorship of arts projects is viewed more favourably than commercial sponsorship, and theatre companies may fear tarnishing their reputation by seeking corporate support (Dalakas 2009). In their study of 875 theatre projects in the US that have met their funding goal on Kickstarter in 2011, Boeuf, Darveau, and Legoux (2014, 43) concluded that performing arts funders are “guided by a prosocial exchange.” Per their study, symbolic rewards such as public acknowledgment for their contribution is important in the success of a theatre funding campaign. Their study also found that the greater the number of theatre projects an entrepreneur submits for crowdfunding, the lower the amount of money they can raise. Crowdfunding in theatre follows the pattern of reciprocal exchange and soliciting the same crowd for subsequent projects has the potential to induce fatigue. Hence, Boeuf, et al. suggest that entrepreneurs in the field should focus on image motivation. Like the Choragi of the ancient Greece, modern day crowdfunders of performing arts are motivated “by a desire to belong to a community of creative individuals,” (Boeuf et al. 2014, 45). Since a theatre entrepreneur’s participation in their peer’s campaigns boosts the sense of community and support, it also increases the chances for the success of her future crowdfunding campaigns. Beyond these insights however, there is little that we know about theatre crowdfunding due to a lack of existing research. Aim and Scope This paper focuses on theatre crowdfunding as one of the as-yet under-studied categories of creative arts crowdfunding. We limit our scope to theatre crowdfunding on the Kickstarter ARTIVATE 9.1 104 platform and in the country of Canada, although our data allows some comparative analyses with theatre crowdfunding projects in the United States, where the bulk of Kickstarter projects (~78% of all projects and ~80% of theatre projects) are located. The aim of our study is to provide some initial understanding of the theatre crowdfunding landscape, especially in Canada, in order to illustrate the usefulness of geographically localized analysis of large crowdfunding datasets. We hope to provide readers with an understanding of the scale of activity, backers and money involved, the geographical and temporal patterns, the type of projects, people, motivations, and aspirations involved, etc. All of this is useful to, and provides context for, future researchers aiming to study theatre crowdfunding. In what follows, we first provide some background on creative media crowdfunding in Canada, as well as a review of the limited literature that exists on theatre crowdfunding. We then describe the quantitative and qualitative data and the underlying data collection effort, before continuing to present and discuss exploratory results and analyses on theatre crowdfunding in Canada-based Kickstarter projects including some comparison with theatre crowdfunding in US-based Kickstarter projects. Crowdfunding activity has been lagging in Canada compared to the US but has grown consistently in the past few years. The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA) reports that the volume of crowdfunding transactions in Canada reached $133 million in 2015 (NCFA 2016), while a variety of regulatory efforts by provincial securities commissions and other stakeholders since 2012 has gradually opened the institutional pathways for crowdfunding in Canada. Data and Methods We chose a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods to explore theatre crowdfunding. Quantitative analysis allows us to explore the aggregate patterns, while qualitative analysis allows us to observe interesting outliners and compare the unique details that arise in different theatre crowdfunding projects. Quantitative Data We used a combination of software tools to scrape data directly from the Kickstarter website and search Application Programming Interface (API), as well as to store, clean, and analyze the data. The stack of software tools used include MySQL, Java, Postman, Firebug, Excel, and Stata. We were able to collect data on all completed theatre projects in the US and Canada launched on dates ranging from April 28, 2009 (the day that the Kickstarter platform itself was launched on the internet) to November 22, 2016. What we mean by “completed” is that the projects were not still live at the time of scanning and not suspended by Kickstarter for violating the site’s rules (which are very rare cases). Only one theatre project in Canada has ever been suspended and when we checked its page we found it to be a prank not at all related to theatre. Note that although Kickstarter technically opened to Canadians only after September 2013, as early as 2010 we observe theatre projects launched on Kickstarter that self-reported their location as ARTIVATE 9.1 105 Canada. Canadians were able to launch projects on Kickstarter before 2013 by finding work- arounds such as enlisting a third-party partner that had the necessary eligibility requirements such as US social security number, id, bank account, and address (Nordicity 2012). After dropping suspended cases, the state of each project at the end of completion can have a status of either canceled, failed, or successful. Unlike Boeuf et al. (2014), we were able to collect data on unsuccessful (canceled or failed) projects. According to Kickstarter’s “all-or-nothing” rule system (Cumming, Leboeuf, & Schwienbacher 2014), the money pledged does not reach the project creator(s) unless the status of the project is successful at completion. Success is defined as having received a total pledged amount larger than the goal amount set for the project before the deadline (which the campaign creator can set at 60 days or less after launch). Unlike equity-based or donation-based crowdfunding platforms (Belleflamme, Lambert, & Schwienbacher 2013), Kickstarter is a reward-based platform meaning that backers expect to receive a reward in return for their funding. In theatre projects, the reward is most often tickets to attend a theatre production. However, project creators can be creative with the way they design rewards, and many of them blur the line between reward and donation. For example, for small amounts, rewards often include such things as “thank you” notes. Table 1: Number of Kickstarter Theatre Projects by Year. 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total Canada 0 2 12 4 16 58 51 29 172 US 51 564 1,398 1,692 1,200 1,252 1,037 614 7,808 In total, we found 172 completed theatre projects that had indicated their location to be from Canada and 7,808 theatre projects from the US. For each project we collected data on the project title and URL, self-reported country, province or state, city or town, sub-category, status at completion, number of backers, amount of money targeted (goal) and pledged in (In USD, converted from CAD to USD equivalent for Canadian projects for comparability), and launch date. The number of projects launched in each year from 2009 to 2016 in our data is reported in Table 1. Note that 2016 numbers are lower because we did not have data on the full year. In sum, we collected quantitative data on 7,980 Kickstarter projects. For comparison of Canadian provinces, we used additional population data from the Canadian socioeconomic database from Statistics Canada (CANSIM). We calculated the proportion of the population of each province relative to the total population of Canada. Since these proportions were almost completely stable from 2009-2016, we use only the 2016 proportions. Qualitative Data We selected a number of theatre projects for additional data collection from qualitative sources, including the project’s Kickstarter page and media coverage of the project. Our selection criterion was to include all Canadian theatre projects that have raised the highest amount of money in their subcategory in their province. This produced a list of 27 Canadian theatre ARTIVATE 9.1 106 projects in total, which are detailed in Table 2. In addition, we created synopses or summary descriptions of twenty-five of these projects (all of the English language and one of the French campaigns) and made an attempt to track their status and media coverage after their Kickstarter campaigns. These summaries are provided in the appendix, and are meant to illustrate the variety, nature, and scale of Canadian theatre projects that have succeeded in crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Table 2: Significant Successful Canadian Theatre Projects Selected for Qualitative Review. Title, Blurb, Significance and URL Project Characteristics Title: Perchance's Fifth Season: It's a party and you're invited! Blurb: We have reached a pivotal stage of our growth, and we are asking you to help us continue to produce and present truly excellent theatre Significance: Only successful project in Newfoundland and Labrador. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/418144630/perchances- fifth-season-its-a-party-and-youre-invi Location: Cupids, NL Subcategory: General Backers: 76 CAD Raised: $10,281 Launch Date: 13-08-2014 Title: SPACES Blurb: A night of integrational movement theatre exploring space/proximity, privacy/openness in human relationships. Significance: Best in the experimental sub-category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1214425795/spaces- 1 Location: Toronto, ON Subcategory: Experimental Backers: 13 CAD Raised: $610 Launch Date: 10-06-2016 Title: The Watershed Staging Workshop Blurb: A staging workshop for Porte Parole's new documentary theatre piece - The Watershed - about freshwater politics in Canada. Significance: Best in Quebec. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965066139/the- watershed-staging-workshop Location: Montreal, QC Subcategory: General Backers: 181 CAD Raised: $21,712 Launch Date: 08-05-2014 Title: Give Guelph a Permanent Home for Comedy and Improv Blurb: Our community has made it clear that we need a home for live comedy, improv training, joy and empowerment. Let's make happy happen! Significance: Best in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/680747663/give- guelph-a-permanent-home-for-comedy-and-improv Location: Guelph, ON Subcategory: General Backers: 204 CAD Raised: $24,355 Launch Date: 27-05-2016 Title: THE ORBWEAVER, from Mexico to the Vancouver Fringe Festival Blurb: The WORLD PREMIERE of The Orbweaver, a Mexican fairytale, at the 2016 Vancouver Fringe Festival. Significance: Best in the festivals sub-category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2123279654/the- orbweaver-from-mexico-to-the-vancouver-fringe Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Festivals Backers: 15 CAD Raised: $2,000 Launch Date: 22-07-2016 Title: Temporala - Help get this Sci-Fi Magic Show on the road! Blurb: This show is written, built, and ready to hit the Vegas strip. But now we’re stuck in Canada with no way to get there without your help Significance: Best in Alberta. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1311336075/temporala- help-get-this-sci-fi-magic-show-on-the-r Location: Calgary, AB Subcategory: General Backers: 37 CAD Raised: $7,350 Launch Date: 10-09-2015 ARTIVATE 9.1 107 Title, Blurb, Significance and URL Project Characteristics Title: You're a Good Man Charlie Brown Blurb: The generosity shown by our supporters has truly touched us. We thank everyone for believing in summer theatre. Warm regards, Pip & Dan Significance: Best in the musical sub-category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/976986587/youre-a- good-man-charlie-brown-fundraiser Location: Bancroft, ON Subcategory: Musical Backers: 47 CAD Raised: $4,395 Launch Date: 30-01-2015 Title: Giant Co. - HONESTY RENTS BY THE HOUR - Montreal Fringe Blurb: Certainly not here for the conversation. Significance: Best in the festivals sub-category in Quebec. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1137416474/giant- co-honesty-rents-by-the-hour-montreal-fringe Location: Montreal, QC Subcategory: Festivals Backers: 26 CAD Raised: $1,265 Launch Date: 26-02-2016 Title: StrayDog Theatre Company into the West Theatre Fest Blurb: StrayDog Theatre Company is making a trip out west to participate in the into the west theatre festival on Bowen Island. Significance: Best in the general sub-category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/626742877/straydog- theatre-company-into-the-west-theatre-fes Location: Bowen Island, BC Subcategory: General Backers: 56 CAD Raised: $6,695 Launch Date: 14-04-2011 Title: Les Concubines Blurb: Spectacle-performance par des femmes sur la femme et ses visages Show-performance by women about the woman and her faces Significance: Best in the musical sub-category in Quebec. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lesconcubines/les- concubines Location: Montreal, QC Subcategory: Musical Backers: 14 CAD Raised: $1,000 Launch Date: 01-04-2015 Title: Three Things: Stories About Life Blurb: An inspirational one-man play about crisis, community, and the search for wholeness. Significance: Only successful project in the plays sub-category in Manitoba. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whatilearned/three- things-stories-about-life Location: Winnipeg, MB Subcategory: Plays Backers: 34 CAD Raised: $2,500 Launch Date: 03-11-2015 Title: We Don't Need Another Hero Blurb: Part performance, part communal catharsis - an experiential spectacle inspired by Occupy, magnifying joy through dance, voice, theatre. Significance: Only successful project in the immersive sub- category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/820995817/we- dont-need-another-hero Location: Toronto, ON Subcategory: Immersive Backers: 54 CAD Raised: $12,129 Launch Date: 08-03-2015 Title: Merlin, les Origines d'une légende Blurb: Spectacle de légende fantastique dans un amphithéâtre naturel en forêt à St-Mathieu-du-Parc Significance: Only successful project in the immersive sub- category in Quebec. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/983474354/merlin- les-origines-dune-legende Location: St.-Mathieu-du-Parc, QC Subcategory: Immersive Backers: 147 CAD Raised: $5,721 Launch Date: 14-05-2016 Title: ROOMIES - Atlantic Canada Tour 2016-17 Blurb: Help us strengthen and inspire disability arts in Atlantic Canada Significance: Only successful project in New Brunswick. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869186779/hubcity- theatre-roomies-atlantic-canada-tour-2016 Location: Moncton, NB Subcategory: Plays Backers: 32 CAD Raised: $2,512 Launch Date: 02-03-2016 ARTIVATE 9.1 108 Title, Blurb, Significance and URL Project Characteristics Title: Welcome Back to Harlem: A Hellfighter's Story Blurb: A Harlem Hellfighter struggles to re-integrate into his community after heroically fighting for his country in WW1. Significance: Best in the plays sub-category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellfighter/welcome- back-to-harlem-a-hellfighters-story Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Plays Backers: 57 CAD Raised: $7,220 Launch Date: 30-05-2014 Title: Harvest Blurb: The Harvest Festival is a two-day performance festival taking place in September 2015, involving local and international artists Significance: Best in the experimental sub-category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1771498201/harvest Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Experimental Backers: 43 CAD Raised: $5,044 Launch Date: 18-06-2015 Title: Save The Stardust Drive-in Theatre Blurb: We need your help to save part of North American history! Check out our news video at: http://bcove.me/3i2zd1ov Significance: Best in Canada and only successful project in the general sub-category in Manitoba. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/888695472/save- the-stardust-drive-in-theatre Location: Morden, MB Subcategory: General Backers: 419 CAD Raised: $31,975 Launch Date: 03-06-2015 Title: Uncalled For Presents: Playday Mayday in Toronto! Blurb: Uncalled For is finally bringing their latest work of intelligently reckless stream-of-consciousness sketch comedy to Toronto. Significance: Best in the plays sub-category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/460026610/uncalled-for- presents-playday-mayday-in-toronto Location: Toronto, ON Subcategory: Plays Backers: 114 CAD Raised: $10,338 Launch Date: 30-08-2016 Title: Seabird is Going to New York! Blurb: Help Theatre Babelle's Seabird is in a Happy Place make the flight from West Coast to East for its NY Premiere! Significance: Only successful project in the immersive sub- category in British Columbia URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649585741/seabird-is- going-to-new-york Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Immersive Backers: 29 CAD Raised: $2,166 Launch Date: 22-06-2015 Title: A Moment of Silence Blurb: English Premiere of award-winning play A Moment of Silence Significance: Best in the festivals sub-category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nowadaystheatre/a- moment-of-silence Location: Toronto, ON Subcategory: Festivals Backers: 35 CAD Raised: $4,000 Launch Date: 08-07-2016 Title: ONTARIO STREET THEATRE in Port Hope. Blurb: We're an affordable theatre and rental space that can be molded into anything by anyone. Significance: Only successful project in the spaces sub-category in Ontario. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1359145496/ontario- street-theatre-in-port-hope Location: Port Hope, ON Subcategory: Spaces Backers: 97 CAD Raised: 48,620 Launch Date: 14-11-2014 Title: PSYCHOC une comédie libertine de Bernard Granger Blurb: Un psychiatre reçoit une patiente souffrant d'amnésie, de mythomanie et de nymphomanie. S'en suit une cascade d'événements drolatiques. Significance: Best in the plays sub-category in Quebec. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/817107082/psychoc-une- comedie-libertine-de-bernard-granger Location: Montreal, QC Subcategory: Plays Backers: 35 CAD Raised: $1,668 Launch Date: 12-01-2016 ARTIVATE 9.1 109 Title, Blurb, Significance and URL Project Characteristics Title: Family in Church a new play by Pascale Roger-McKeever Blurb: a tragic-comedy exploring the reactions of a family when faced with the death of one of their daughter’s best friend. Significance: Best in Nova Scotia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48259355/family- in-church-a-new-play-by-pascale-roger-mckee Location: Halifax, NS Subcategory: General Backers: 91 CAD Raised: $5,260 Launch Date: 18-03-2011 Title: Dog Sees God - Calgary Production Blurb: A poignant & hilarious tale of Charlie Brown & friends navigating high school. A fresh take on the off Broadway hit by YYC artists. Significance: Only successful project in the plays sub-category in Alberta. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1538343980/dog- sees-god-calgary-production Location: Calgary, AB Subcategory: Plays Backers: 17 CAD Raised: $1,625 Launch Date: 03-04-2015 Title: A Taste of Broadway Blurb: A delectable musical revue that offers the history of Broadway served up in story, dance, images and song. Significance: Best in the musical sub-category in Alberta. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/perfectlyimperfects/a- taste-of-broadway Location: Calgary, AB Subcategory: Musical Backers: 42 CAD Raised: $4,500 Launch Date: 15-04-2016 Title: Two Monkeys Productions presents "Edges" Blurb: Two Monkeys Productions - a new professional theatre company in Vancouver. Opening their first production "Edges" on April 3rd, 2015 Significance: Only successful project in the musical sub- category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/828798542/two- monkeys-productions-presents-edges Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Musical Backers: 33 CAD Raised: $2,005 Launch Date: 06-03-2015 Title: Like This Post (The Post at 750) Blurb: Introducing The Post at 750! Join us in the creation of Vancouver's most exciting new cultural space in the heart of downtown. Significance: Only successful project in the spaces sub-category in British Columbia. URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1938540856/like- this-post-the-post-at-750 Location: Vancouver, BC Subcategory: Spaces Backers: 128 CAD: $16,501 Launch Date: 19-03-2015 A Note on the Categorization of Theatre Campaigns in Kickstarter It needs to be noted that categorization of campaigns on the Kickstarter platform is no exact science. Kickstarter allows users to self-select the category and subcategory of their campaigns., and many of the options to choose from are not mutually exclusive. For example one creator may choose to categorize a musical production under the “Musical” subcategory or theatre, while another user may categorize a similar production outside of the theatre category and instead in the “Dance” category (which would not show up in our data). Another still may choose the theatre category but not specify any subcategory, in which case we would count them in the “general” subcategory. Furthermore, the categorization system on Kickstarter evolves, with new categories and subcategories being created by the platform over time. Unfortunately, data on the timing and nature of past changes in categorization was not available to us. In either case the vast majority of projects in the theatre category have not specified a subcategory and are thus categorized as general (46% of Canadian theatre campaigns and 75% of US theatre campaigns. The categorization system used in this paper is what Kickstarter had in place at the time of data ARTIVATE 9.1 110 collection in 2016 and involved the subcategories of experimental, festivals, immersive, musical, plays, and spaces. Most campaigns categorized as “festival” sought financial support for taking a theatre production to a cultural festival such as a local Fringe Festival. Campaigns under the “spaces” subcategory typically sought financial support to build or renovate a local space for theatre production. Exploratory Quantitative Analysis Among the fifteen categories of projects on Kickstarter, theatre ranks as 10th in terms of the number of projects launched representing 3.09% of all Kickstarter projects, and 8th in terms of the mean US dollars pledged ($4,039) according to our data. In Canada however, theatre ranks as the 13th category in terms of number of projects, and only 1.45% of all Canada-based Kickstarter projects are in the theatre category. In terms of money pledged, theatre is the 12th ranked category in Canada. Canada accounts for 3.84% of all Kickstarter projects and 1.8% of all theatre projects on Kickstarter according to our data. In what follows, we divide our analysis into country-level and province-level statistics. In the country-level analysis we include comparisons with US data but focus on the Canadian data in province-level analyses. Country-level Analysis with US comparison Table 3 depicts some key statistics for US and Canadian theatre projects on Kickstarter. Since many of the variables studied here have skewed distributions (histograms displayed later on in this paper), we report medians as well as means in this table. Overall, we found that as of November 22, 2016 successfully completed Kickstarter theatre projects in the US have collectively raised more than $30 million, while Canadian projects have reached a collective sum of more than $300,000. When calculating amounts raised, we do not count money that was pledged but not received because the campaign did not meet its target goal. The average success rate, mean and median goals and money raised, as well as mean and median number of backers are all lower in Canada than the US, although this is to be expected as Canada has a much smaller population, much fewer projects, and was not officially allowed on Kickstarter for about half of our data’s time frame. Given this, it is interesting to observe that the success rate of Canadian theatre projects is as close as it is to the US success rate. According to these numbers, the average backer of successful Canadian theatre projects provides those projects with $71 USD of rewards- based funding, while the average backer of successful US theatre projects provides $135 USD of reward-based funding. It is interesting to observe that successful projects on average seem to be much more conservative in their goal-setting than unsuccessful projects. While due to Kickstarter’s rules, all successful projects reach at least 100% of their target goal, looking at the percent of goal reached for unsuccessful projects can give us an idea of what thresholds are needed for success. We observe that 80% of unsuccessful theatre projects in Canada reach less than 15% of their ARTIVATE 9.1 111 target (20% of target for the USA), confirming earlier studies that once a relatively low threshold is reached, the chances of success are high (Boeuf et al. 2014). Table 3: Key Statistics for US and Canadian Theatre Projects on Kickstarter. Canada US Number of Projects Failed (Percentage) 16 (9.3%) 408 (5.23%) Number of Projects Canceled (Percentage) 57 (33.14%) 2,650 (33.94%) Number of Projects Successful (Percentage) 99 (57.56%) 4,750 (60.84%) Mean Project Goal in USD (All Projects) $18,497 $27,744 Median Project Goal in USD (All Projects) $2,457 $3,500 Mean Project Goal in USD (Successful Projects) $3,027 $5,465 Median Project Goal in USD (Successful Projects) $1,554 $3,000 Mean USD Raised (Successful Projects) $3,415 $6,340 Median USD Raised (Successful Projects) $1,819 $3,125 Sum of USD Raised (Successful Projects) $338,051 $30,116,587 Mean Number of Backers (Successful Projects) 48 75 Median Number of Backers (Successful Projects) 29 47 Mean Percent of Goal Reached (Unsuccessful Projects) 7% 11% Median Percent of Goal Reached (Unsuccessful Projects) 1% 3% 80th Percentile of Percent of Goal Reached (Unsuccessful Projects) 15% 20% 90th Percentile of Percent of Goal Reached (Unsuccessful Projects) 23% 34% Mean Percent of Goal Reached (Successful Projects) 125% 147% Median Percent of Goal Reached (Successful Projects) 108% 109% Figure 2: Mean US Dollars Pledged for Successful Canadian Theatre Projects Figure 2: Mean US Dollars Pledged for Successful US Theatre Projects ARTIVATE 9.1 112 Next we increase the granularity of our country-level analysis to sub-categories. Figures 1 and 2 depict average amount of money raised by successful projects in each sub-category for Canada and the US. Figures 3 and 4 decpict average number of backers by sub-category and Figures 5 and 6 break down the status and success rate statistics by sub-category. The patterns here are mostly consistent with category-level data, although some interesting irregularities are observed. For example, Canadian theater projects in the Musical sub-category seem to be performing especially poorly compared to their US counterparts when we look at the amount Figure 6: Mean Number of Backers for Successful Canadian Theatre Projects. Figure 6: Mean Number of Backers for Successful US Theatre Projects Figure 4: Outcome of Canadian Theatre Projects by Sub-Category. Figure 4: Outcome of US Theatre Projects by Sub-Category ARTIVATE 9.1 113 of money raised and number of backers, although the Musical sub- category in Canada has a higher rate of success than in the US. Meanwhile, the Festivals sub- category exhibits an especially high success rate in Canada compared to the US (73.3%) while the Immersive theatre category exhibits an especially high cancellation rate (25%) and low success rate (37.5%), although these numbers could be prone to small numbers bias. Figures 7 and 8 present boxplots for the ratio of goal reached by country, for unsuccessful (failed or cancelled) and successful projects respectively. Outliers are excluded from these graphs because they would distort them substantially, especially for US-based projects where a few rare cases have been hugely successful. The white line at the center of the boxes represents the median, while the bottom and top Figure 8: Boxplot of Ratio of Goal Reached for Unsuccessful Theatre Projects. Figure 8: Boxplot of Ratio of Goal Reached for Successful Theatre Projects. Figure 9: Histogram of Launch Date for Theatre Projects in Canada and USA. ARTIVATE 9.1 114 edge of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentile respectively. These graphs confirm that almost all unsuccessful projects reach less than 20-40% of their goal. Figure 8 further shows that most successful projects surpass their goals by very little to moderate amounts. Figure 9 presents histograms of launch dates, which reveal an interesting seasonality, better observed for the US because of the higher number of projects. Project launches seem to peak in the summer months and slow down in the winter months. Also, the graphs clearly show that Canadian theatre activity on Kickstarter was rare before Kickstarter was officially launched in Canada in September 2013. The general time trend does not seem to be encouraging for Kickstarter, with a noticeable decline seeming to occur in the later months. Figure 11: Histogram of US Dollars Pledged for Successful Theatre Projects in Canada and USA. Figure 10: Histogram of Number of Backers for Successful Theatre Projects in Canada and USA. ARTIVATE 9.1 115 Histograms of money raised and number of backers for successful projects (Figures 10 and 11) reveal heavily skewed power law distributions as one would expect (Crawford, Aguinis, Lichtenstein, Davidsson, & McKelvey 2015). Power law phenomena are abundant in nature and social settings, but the term “power law” in business performance specifically refers to the statistical distribution of performance statistics where very few cases achieve great performance, while the majority achieve relatively low performance. The histograms are cropped to avoid the distortion effect of a small number of outliers. Province-level Analysis Figures 12 and 13 present descriptive statistics by province on the number of Canadian theatre projects and number of successful Canadian theatre projects. Table 4 puts the numbers in these figures into perspective by comparing their relative proportions to the relative proportion of Canadian population that resides in each province. In order to avoid the influence of small numbers bias, it may be helpful to narrow our focus on the four provinces that have more than twenty-five projects (all other provinces have only three or fewer). These are Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, in order of their proportion of Canada’s population. Of these, only Quebec has a proportion of Canadian theatre projects on Kickstarter and proportion of successful Canadian theatre projects on Kickstarter that are lower than its proportion of Canada’s population. This may be due to the language difference with Kickstarter being perceived as a predominantly English-language website, although the site does offer a French language interface and project creators can write descriptions in French as well. Beyond the language issue, two other competing hypotheses that could explain this finding are that either Quebec has an overall less active theatre scene relative to its population, or Quebec has a relatively more munificent funding environment for its theatre projects, thus reducing the need for crowdfunding as a substitute funding mechanism. Figure 13: Number of Canadian Theatre Projects by Province. Figure 13: Number of Successful Canadian Theatre Projects by Province. ARTIVATE 9.1 116 Table 4: Comparison of Relative Proportion of Kickstarter Theatre Projects (All and Successful) with Relative Proportion of Population by Province. Province Proportion of Canadian Population Proportion of Canadian Theatre Projects Proportion of Successful Canadian Theatre Projects Ontario 0.385 0.430 0.444 Quebec 0.229 0.174 0.162 British Columbia 0.131 0.174 0.222 Alberta 0.117 0.157 0.111 Manitoba 0.036 0.017 0.020 Saskatchewan 0.032 0.000 0.000 Nova Scotia 0.026 0.012 0.020 New Brunswick 0.021 0.017 0.010 Newfoundland and Labrador 0.015 0.012 0.010 Prince Edward Island 0.004 0.000 0.000 Yukon 0.001 0.006 0.000 Northwest Territories 0.001 0.000 0.000 Nunavut 0.001 0.000 0.000 Figures 14 and 15 present descriptive statistics by province on the amount of money raised and number of backers for successful Canadian theatre projects. Interestingly, most of the provinces with the fewest number of successful projects (with the exception of New Brunswick) have the highest average amount of money raised. This means that the few projects that succeeded in those provinces (Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia) succeeded at a very high level relative to the average of other provinces. The same pattern is observed when we look at the number of backers metric. This result may indicate a loss of novelty effect such that the first few Kickstarter campaigns in any locale enjoy a certain appeal boost due to their novelty, but as more of the local population become familiar with Kickstarter campaigns and more projects seek their attention and money, the appeal factor is dampened. Figure 15: Mean US Dollars Pledged for Successful Canadian Theatre Projects by Province. Figure 15: Mean Number of Backers for Successful Canadian Theatre Projects by Province. ARTIVATE 9.1 117 Given the relatively small-scale and subsistence-level funding that occurs through theatre crowdfunding campaigns, a relevant comparator group for which statistics broken down by province are available may be non-profit performing arts companies. Statistics Canada provides statistics on the number of performances and attendances, as well as revenue amounts for these companies. Table 5 lists these statistics by province for the year 2016. Since Statistics Canada collects this data on a biannual basis and did not have 2015 numbers, while our data for 2016 is incomplete, we compare some of the data points in Table 5 with provincial aggregates in our data for 2015 which is the closest year for which we have full Kickstarter data. According to our data, in 2015, Ontario theatre campaigns raised $38,269, British Columbia campaigns raised $31,670, Quebec campaigns raised $13,094, and Alberta campaigns raised $12,706 in total funding through Kickstarter. These numbers are equivalent to 23% of revenue from grants, subsidies, donations, sponsorships, or fundraising events in 2016 for non- profit performing arts companies in the province of Ontario, 64% for British Columbia, 12% for Quebec, and 24% for Alberta. However, if we expand the comparator group to include for-profit performing arts companies and count revenues from all sources, the total amounts raised on Kickstarter are miniscule compared to the billion-dollar scale aggregate annual revenues of the performing arts industry. Table 5: Performance, attendance, and revenue statistics for non-profit performing arts companies in Canada by Province, for 2016. Statistics Canada Table 21-10-0185-01 and Table 21-10-0186-01. N/A: Not available from Statistics Canada. Geography Total # of Performances Total Attendance Avg. Attendance per Performance Revenue from Sales ($ CAD) Revenue from Grants, subsidies, donations, sponsorships & fundraising ($ CAD) Revenue from Licensing ($ CAD) Canada 39,013 12,174,596 312 375,818.60 412,416.90 1,234.30 Ontario 10,883 3,638,004 334 149,848.10 167,849.60 475.6 Quebec 10,185 3,711,278 364 92,677.10 105,606.00 591.2 Alberta 4,985 1,361,194 273 48,993.30 52,696.10 4.9 British Columbia 7,208 1,794,783 249 48,237.20 49,211.10 N/A Manitoba 1,419 689,145 486 15,684.30 14,493.30 N/A Nova Scotia 1,672 455,576 272 N/A 7,245.00 N/A Sask. 1,178 303,803 258 8,507.00 6,725.40 N/A Newfoundland & Labr. 795 125,016 157 2,432.50 4,096.70 N/A New Brunswick 490 80,262 164 N/A 3,284.80 N/A Prince Edward Island N/A N/A N/A N/A 479.5 0 Yukon N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0 Nunavut 0 0 N/A N/A N/A N/A Northwest Territories N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A ARTIVATE 9.1 118 Limitations and Caveats of Quantitative Analysis Our notion of “successful” projects and metrics for success in this paper and any other crowdfunding study need to be taken with a grain of salt. Measuring success in crowdfunding is fraught with complications. A crowdfunding project is often just one component of an entrepreneurial effort, and success on a crowdfunding platform with metrics such as amount raised and number of backers does not guarantee that the broader effort is ultimately a successful one. In fact, some of the record-setting successes of Kickstarter, such as the Coolest Cooler are known to have run into financial difficulty after their crowdfunding campaign was over, with many backers still waiting to receive their promised rewards after multiple delays (Singleton 2016). Furthermore, the achievement of reaching your crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter is valuable, and results in receiving the funds pledged, but it is no guarantee that these funds are enough to cover the project’s actual needs. For example, the documentary film Within Every Woman directed by Tiffany Hsiung successfully surpassed its $50,000 goal on Kickstarter and raised $56,525 but still needed an additional $200,000 to finance production (Nordicity 2012). However, the success of the crowdfunding campaign provides valuable idea validation and proof-of-concept that enables the project creator to raise additional funding from other sources. Another important issue to consider about Kickstarter is that it sometimes abides by different rules for different countries. The only such rule we found that was potentially relevant to this study was that according to the Kickstarter website. the maximum reward value for US- based projects is $10,000 USD but for Canadian projects it is $13,000 CAD. With the exchange rates at the time of writing, however, these two values are equivalent. In any case, theatre projects rarely ever set any single reward value at such high levels. The qualitative analysis below confirms some of the data limitations and caveats discussed here, and reveals additional ones. Exploratory Qualitative Analysis Table 2 presents the list of Canadian theatre projects on Kickstarter that we selected for qualitative review. Most of them are summarized in more detail in the appendix. The most amount of money raised by a Canadian theatre project in our data is $31,975 CAD which was raised by the project titled Save The Stardust Drive-in Theatre located in Morden, Manitoba, but the typical project among those we reviewed raised somewhere in the $2,000-$5,000 range. While befitting the sub-category of spaces, the Stardust Theatre project does not specify a sub- category for itself and is thus listed in the general sub-category. This is in fact a widespread practice where projects don’t necessarily correctly self-label their sub-categories or could be categorized in multiple sub-categories. Another example is Harvest, which refers to itself explicitly as a “festival” in the descriptions, does not self-categorize under the festival sub- category, while Moment of Silence explicitly describes itself as a play while self-categorizing under festivals. Projects are not necessarily originally from their self-described location in Canada. They may be originating from another location but raising funds for a Canadian performance. For ARTIVATE 9.1 119 example, Moment of Silence is a play originating in Iran. Furthermore, some projects are multi- locational in nature, thus labeling them with a single location is less meaningful. For example, ROOMIES is a project aiming for an Atlantic Canada tour and involves artists from three different provinces in that region. Many projects set a target goal that only partially covers the costs of their broader initiative. For example, the Stardust Drive-in Theatre needed more than $90,000 to switch to a digital projector technology to survive and targeted only one third of that amount to raise on Kickstarter. As another example, in the Ontario Street Theatre in Port Hope project, the manager of Storefront Theatre conducted multiple fundraising events outside of Kickstarter during his campaign and posted information about them as updates on Kickstarter. Some projects are created by well-established theatrical institutions of their community for the purposes of growth rather than survival. For example, the only successful project in Newfoundland and Labrador was created by the Perchance Theatre, a well-known summer theatre in the province as a growth initiative on the occasion of their 5th anniversary. Other projects are created by smaller players and sometimes out of desperation for survival. Blackfly Summer Theatre, the entity behind the You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown project aimed to raise part of the money they needed to purchase the rights for the Charlie Brown production on Kickstarter. The initiative was out of desperation due to declining audience numbers. Although they have been in business for ten years, and despite the success of their crowdfunding campaign, the Blackfly Summer Theatre is currently seeking help due to financial trouble. Other specific cases help to highlight the range of motivations driving these theatre projects. Dennis Maione, the creator of the Three Things: Stories About Life project targeted $2,500 to produce a play for the Fringe Festival and give at least one performance. Although the project raised the money it targeted, it did not make it into the Fringe Festival but found other venues and performed the play multiple times. Meagan O’Shea, one of Canada’s renowned artistic directors and the creator of the We Don’t Need Another Hero project in Toronto was very blunt on her campaign page about the reasons she turned to crowdfunding: “Here's the thing, we got some grants, enough to decide to make the project go, commit to everything, and then we didn't get some grants.” The type of rewards offered by the reviewed theatre projects confirm that philanthropy and donation-type rewards play an important role, but many productions do pre-sell tickets as rewards. Acknowledgement of funders is also viewed as important. For example, Elodie Dorsel, the creator of the Spaces workshop project promised to send “personalized love letters” from the team for pledges of $30 or higher. In general, the overall scale and nature of projects indicate mostly requests for subsistence-level funding on Kickstarter, which could be construed as somewhat in line with the traditional hesitation to fully embrace profit-making in arts entrepreneurship, but may also be due to the local nature and limited ticketing capacity of theatre projects, and what they perceive to be feasibly achievable goals on Kickstarter. We found that while some of the Canadian theatre projects we identified as significant had not received media attention, most had. They were often positively reviewed or talked about in local media and newspapers, and sometimes even received national media coverage. For example, the creators of ROOMIES and Save The Stardust Drive-in Theatre were interviewed by ARTIVATE 9.1 120 the CBC. Some crowdfunders like Carisa Hendrix, an award-winning magician, stunt woman, performer and creator of the Temporala project which raised the most amount of money among Albertan theatre projects, have posted complete videos of their production publicly and freely accessible on the internet, but most of the projects we reviewed were not available for digital viewing. Conclusion and Implications To our knowledge, the present paper represents one of the first ever studies of theatre crowdfunding in Canada. It follows a recently burgeoning literature on crowdfunding (Short, Ketchen, McKenny, Allison, & Ireland 2017), which includes only one other study of theatre crowdfunding by Boeuf et al. (2014) that focused on successful US Kickstarter projects. In addition, our study is an early contributor to a broader literature on the impact of digital technology on arts entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, our analysis has been exploratory in nature, limited to the Kickstarter platform, limited to a narrow scope of variables, and most from our perspective as researchers who were “outsiders” to the theatre industry. Much work remains to be done in order to better understand the phenomenon of crowdfunding in the theatre context, both in Canada and other countries. To do so, platforms other than Kickstarter need to be analyzed, with larger variable sets, and hopefully with the engagement of scholars and practitioners, who have greater insider knowledge of the theatre industry and its particularities. Furthermore, much work remains to be done to better understand how crowdfunding platforms and other digital technologies change the nature of artmaking, audience engagement, and arts entrepreneurship more generally. Among the significant projects we reviewed qualitatively, we noticed the involvement of some of Canada’s best theatrical, creative, and artistic talent, and we noticed that the typical amount of money raised by these projects is at a relatively small scale. Although their crowdfunding campaigns are often only supporting part of their budgetary needs, these campaigns are nevertheless spurring theatrical activity and keeping otherwise financially challenged projects and theatres alive. We hope that, in the future, new financial innovations will both improve existing types of crowdfunding, create new models, and maybe even create innovative alternatives to crowdfunding that can better support the theatre community as well as the broader performing arts and creative media industries. Finally, we hope that efforts to design and develop courses and educational material on arts management and arts entrepreneurship can begin to include material specific to crowdfunding in order to open up horizons in the minds of future creative artists in terms of not just alternative financing options, but more broadly, the digital support tools of arts entrepreneurship. ARTIVATE 9.1 121 Appendix: Synopsis of  Successful Canadian Theatre Crowdfunding Campaigns on Kickstarter In this appendix we provide summary descriptions of 25 successful Canadian theatre crowdfunding campaigns on the Kickstarter platform. These descriptions are meant to illustrate the variety, nature and scale of the kinds of theatre projects that have been able to succeed in crowdfunding. In addition to describing the projects themselves, we have made an effort to track the projects and provide additional information on their status or media coverage after their crowdfunding campaign. Perchance Theatre Perchance Theatre is an outdoor performance space. It produces and presents classical theatre each summer in Cupids, Newfoundland and Labrador. It was inspired by Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theatre in London, England. The theatre is led by the Director Danielle Ivrine and it features some of the province’s best stage actors. They’re working to establish the Conception bay as a cultural and tourism destination. On their fifth year, they realized they’ve reached a pivotal stage of growth. They headed towards crowdfunding so that they can continue to produce and present excellent theatre and provide opportunities for people to enjoy the stage. They aimed to raise CA$ 10,000 as a birthday gift on their 5th anniversary. They were offering show tickets for pledgers of CA$ 100 or more. They’ve reached their goal and they’ve issued Tax receipts to the contributors. Perchance is a well-known summer theatre in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was formerly known as New World Theatre Project when it was launched in 2010. They get good local exposure every summer when their performance season starts. The Telegram wrote a couple of pieces about them. One of them was to talk about the project’s goals. Another piece was published about Danielle Ivrine, the director of the theatre highlighting how a local lawyer turned out to establish a locally recognized theatre. Spaces Spaces is an experimental workshop/theatre performance in Toronto that aims to explore space/proximity, privacy openness in human relationships. Throughout the 1-hour show/workshop, twenty audience members will take part in an experiment. “I want them to experience first-hand what makes them uncomfortable, what doesn’t and have them wonder why that is the case.” Explains Elodie Dorsel, the Creator of the workshop. The workshop is a bilingual event in both French and English and accessible for deaf audience as well. This was a very small experimental project with minimal exposure. The fundraising target was CA$ 200 and the founder raised CA$ 610. She even displayed a breakdown of the project’s spending. She promised to send “Personalized love letters” from the team for pledgers of CA$ 30 or higher. ARTIVATE 9.1 122 The Watershed Staging Workshop Porte Parole is a documentary theatre company in Montreal. It creates verbatim plays that explores human dynamics within contemporary political and social Canadian conflicts. Its project The Watershed is a play about an artist, a family, and a country struggling to chart a sustainable course between two seemingly irreconcilable goals: steady economic growth and sound environmental stewardship. The play’s script is based on interview footage in quest to understand the federal government’s economics and environmental policies. The Watershed is about the future of fresh water. Their target was to raise CA$ 20,000 for a production workshop to test the dramatic quality of the play and explore staging possibilities. The project was backed with CA$ 21,712. The play was premiered in July 2015 and had a lot of exposure. It was premiered during the Panamania Arts and Cultural Festival in Toronto. The Montreal Gazette wrote a piece about the play and said, "Great journalism, and even better theatre." NowToronto wrote good a review about the show and described as “Must-see.” The play was appraised for its goal of raising awareness about the future of water. Give Guelph a Permanent Home for Comedy and Improv This project was launched by “The Making Box”, Guelph’s hub for live comedy since 2013 to build a fully accessible comedy theatre and improv training center. They presented this an opportunity for professional prosperity and city-wide community elevation. They wanted to locate their theatre at the heart of downtown Guelph. It would be a theatre for weekly comedy shows and improv classes. They had a target of CA$ 20,000 that would go towards constructing, insuring, soundproofing and buying furniture for the location. After they reached their goal by raising CA$ 24,355, the project ran into a problem with the city’s regulations that stopped them from building over their chosen location. The Guelph Mercury wrote about this Municipal Board dispute in 2016. The project later established itself in a different location in the city of Guelph, and some years later opened a second location in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. In 2016, they were nominated for both Innovation Guelph’s Start-up of the year and the Guelph Chamber of Commerce Community Spirit Award. They’ve partnered with Innovation Guelph to provide business improv classes. They continue to host live comedy shows and improv classes in both of their locations. The Orbweaver, from Mexico to the Vancouver Fringe Festival The Orbweaver is a play written by emerging Mexican playwright Paula Zelaya Cervantes, and the goal of this campaign is to bring the show to the 2016 Vancouver Fringe Festival for its world premiere. The Orbweaver is an example of a new, innovative Latin American theatrical style that combines story theatre and unusual narrative modes with conventional theatrical dialogue. It’s a one-of-a-kind, intercultural mixture between Canadian and Latin American theatrical narration styles. Their target was to raise CA$ 2,000 that would get their cast to Vancouver from ARTIVATE 9.1 123 Mexico city. They also needed to fund the production costs like costumes, props…etc. They’ve raised exactly CA 2,000 dollars and they were offering tickets to pledgers of CA$ 80 or more. The play was premiered at the Vancouver Fringe in September 2016 and it was a great success. It won the Georgia Straight's Critic's Choice Award along with the volunteers’ choice prize. They were interviewed by Vancouver Presents. Collin Thomas, a Vancouver base award- winning theatre critic wrote an article on them saying “The Orbweaver is so good that having seen it makes me feel better about being alive. Seriously. It’s fantastic.” Temporala - Help get this Sci-Fi Magic Show on the Road! Temporala is a sci-fi magic show that includes fire, dance, circus and magic. It was created by Carisa Hendrix, an award-winning performance who makes interesting shows inspired by history and science fiction. They planned to perform a show in Las Vegas, and their investors pulled out one month before their show. They had to turn to crowdfunding. Her target was to raise CA$ 6,000 in 21 days so fly her show to Las Vegas, and she succeeded by raising CA$ 7,350. She also offered tickets for backers who contributed CA$ 250 or more. Along the way, she failed to deliver the rewards and her backers were angry. Later, she apologized saying there was issue with the distribution company and that the items were shipped. The show in Vegas was a success and she has posted a video of the show on her YouTube channel. Carisa is a well-known magician/stunt girl who have won several awards. She also holds a Guinness world record for the longest fire torch in teeth. You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown Blackfly Summer Theatre has been producing two live theatrical shows for the past ten years in the small town of Bancroft, Ontario. Due to a steady decline in in their audience, they’ve decided to produce the popular musical You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. After negotiations with the company holding the rights to the show, they were quoted CA$ 7,765. They’ve turned to crowdfunding along with their season sponsor to cover that fee. Their target was to raise CA$ 4000 from a small town. They’ve offered seats to their shows for the backers. Bancroft Summer Theatre has been in business for the past 10 years. They’ve been suffering from losses and business problems in the past couple of years and they’re seeking for help according to their Facebook page. Giant Co. - Honesty Rents by the Hour - Montreal Fringe Honesty Rents by the Hour is a play by Michael Milech in Quebec. The play was a finalist in Infinitheatre's 2015 “Write-On-Q!” competition and received a warm reception at a staged reading as a part of the company’s Pipeline series. Their target was CA$ 750 to cover costumes, visual elements, and props. They were able to raise CAD 1,265. They were offering tickets for backers who pledged CA$ 50 or more. The play had a story about them on Entertainment City after its success in Montreal Fringe. Also, Matt Jacobs, the Director of Giant productions, did an interview about the play. ARTIVATE 9.1 124 Stray Dog Theatre Company into the West Theatre Fest The StrayDog Theatre Company is making a trip out to the west coast of Canada to participate in the Into the West Theatre Festival happening on Bowen Island. The company is there to headline the inaugural season of the Into the West Theatre Festival which helps support local theatre in the community including the Tir-na-nog theatre school. The school has, for the past twenty-three years, been a space wherein young people can practice the art of theatre. Over the past few years the school has been struggling with financial instability due to cuts in government and local funding. They wanted to produce shows during the summer so that people will be interested in the school and also help them pay of-season rent. Their target was to raise CA$ 6,000 and they’ve successfully raised CA$ 6,695. The project did not get any media exposure. However, Tir-na-nog Theatre school is still operating as of 2017. Les Concubines Les Concubines is a show-performance created by women that talks about the woman’s face. The show includes five actresses to perform some of Quebec’s most classic songs mixed with words on their anxiety, pleasure and anger. The campaign targets to raise CA$ 1,000 and it succeeds to reach that target. This, along with over sources of funding was intended to give a fair and just salary to creators and artists on the show. Three Things: Stories About Life This is a play by Dennis Maione, a cancer survivor who have published the book What I Learned from Cancer. The play is designed for Fringe festival but suitable for any performance venue. The Kickstarter campaign would help him produce the play and give at least one performance. The campaign was aimed to raise CA$ 2,500 and he reached that target. The film did not make it to the Fringe Festival. However, he didn’t give up and found a venue with the money he raised. He had five show runs and he have moved on to new projects. We Don't Need Another Hero Hero is an interdisciplinary performance that looks at how people interact with the world as individuals, in couples, and in community. The show includes dance duets, solo dance-theatre with audience participation and a bilingual translation. The project had some grants but then they didn’t receive them after committing to everything. This made them turn to crowdfunding. They needed to raise CA$ 12,000 to put a good show. They were successful. The director of the show is a recognized across Canada. Her work has been presented across Canada. She has received over 30 grants for her work. The Montreal Gazette said about her “Off the wall, impossible to categorize, fun.” The Toronto Star said “Whacky, whimsical and wonderful.” ARTIVATE 9.1 125 ROOMIES - Atlantic Canada Tour - ROOMIES is a collective work involving artists from NB, NL, and NS. The playwright and actor lives with a disability and is from Newfoundland. They want to go on a tour that encompasses locations in the provinces of NB, NS, NL, and PEI. ROOMIES delivers its message in a sitcom- style comedy along with more serious insightful scenes about disability, identity, respect, acceptance and the importance of others in our lives. As this is a non-profit project, they still need to pay for performance spaces, accommodations, technicians and transportations. The campaign aimed to raise CA$2,000 and they have been able to raise CA$ 2,512. The company offers tickets for backers who pledged CA$ 20 or more. Their show was a great success due to its message about understanding disabilities. They had an interview with CBC regarding the show. They also had an interview with Rogers TV. The play won the prize for outstanding dramatic script from the Nova Scotia Federation of Writers in the early 2000s, an achievement the writer of the play, David Power holds dear. "What really makes it worthwhile is that people who come to the play and have a disability and have never seen their story told in a way on stage,” he said. Welcome Back to Harlem: A Hellfighter's Story This is a musical play about a Harlem Hellfighter (an African American WWI soldier) struggles to re-integrate into his community after heroically fighting for his country. Set against the backdrop of the dynamic Harlem Renaissance art scene. The show represents the rebirth of black identity in America. The cast of 20 actors had a target of CA$ 5,000 to bring this play to light. They were able to raise CA$ 7,500. They’ve considered themselves not as just a show, but as a movement to keep the history of African-Americans alive. The play was premiered in June 2014 according to their Facebook event. People liked the play and it has received great reviews. Tito Kamel, a writer who worked on the show, had an interview on the YouTube show “Om da Grine TV” where he talked about the motives of creating the play. Harvest The Harvest Festival was conceived by Vancouver-based performer/producer Georgia Johnson as a way to bring together local and international performance artists while highlighting the natural beauty that Mayne Island's landscapes offers. It’s a two-day performance festival involving local and international artists. the fundraising goal for this project is CA$ 5,000, which will pay for the flights and ferry rides of collaborators making their way to Mayne Island from overseas. The project was a success, but we could not locate any media exposure for this project. Save The Stardust Drive-in Theatre The Stardust Drive-In Theatre is a family owned and operated drive-in theatre located in Southern Manitoba. The theatre goes back to the early 1960’s and is well known in Southern Manitoba. The movie industry pashed out 35 mm films in exchange to digital technology. The theatre needs to upgrade to a digital projector. Their quote was CAD 93,500. They’ve managed ARTIVATE 9.1 126 a part of the money and they need CA$ 30,000 to completely fund the Digital projector. They were able to raise CA$ 31,975. The campaign was a success and they’ve received a lot of media Exposure. My Toba website wrote an article on their success for raising the money. CBC had an interview with the theatre’s owners and wrote a news article about them. Winnipeg Free Press had an interesting title that said “One of Manitoba's last drive-in theatres makes a final stand”. Most of the articles talked about how the community came together to support a local place with such a significant history. Uncalled For Presents: Playday Mayday in Toronto! Uncalled For internationally renowned sketch comedy troupe who wants to bring a full-length show to Toronto. Their goal as a company is to bridge the gap between sketch comedy and traditional theatre. They want to a two-week run show called “Playday Mayday”. They’re raising money so they can cover rental cost of the theatre for the two-week run, a proper marketing campaign to sell their tickers and compensate the actors and technicians. Their target was to raise CA$ 10,000 and they succeeded and raised CA$ 10,338. The show was premiered on November 2016 according to their Facebook event. They have really good reviews on the event page. The star wrote a good article about how the events unfold in the play. There was a review on the theater reader that said "Uncalled For's Playday Mayday is Funny as Hell!" All reviews they have received were positive. Seabird is Going to New York! Babelle Theatre’s SEABIRD IS IN A HAPPY PLACE, has been selected as a finalist for the Samuel French 40th Annual Off-Broadway Playwriting Competition in New York. Seabird is a story of a young women who dies and comes back to life under the condition that she must die again when it stops raining. The play will run four days in Vancouver before flying to New York. Their target was to raise CA$ 2,000 and they succeeded in raising CA$ 2,166. All the funds will go to support the Playwright James Gordon, the Director Marie Farsi and the actress Emilie Leclerc on their journey to New York. An article was written about the play’s story on Vancity Buzz. The show was later curated in a play reading series. A Moment of Silence This is a play that charts the recent history of Iran. It’s about an Iranian woman who falls asleep in war missing almost every modern political event. This play is an award-winning play by celebrated Iranian playwright and director, Mohammad Yaghoubi. It won Toronto Fringe Festival’s 2015 New Play contest. It also won the Playwrights’ society of Iran’s best play prize. It has been translated into English, French, Czech, Turkish and Kurdish and performed in Washington and California, Brussels, by Théâtre de Poche in 2014 and in Prague in January 2016. The goal was to raise CA$ 4,000 and they succeeded and raised the exact amount. The play was premiered in Toronto in August 2016. It had great reviews. The theatre times wrote “Despite being deeply contextualized in Iranian contemporary culture and politics, a good ARTIVATE 9.1 127 dramaturgy made A Moment of Silence relatable for Canadian audience while highlighting its universal themes and aesthetics”. Nowadays theatre also spoke great of the play. It quoted Michaela Prikopova saying “an unexpected contemporary play from a culture we do not meet every day, A Moment of Silence…charts the recent history of the country of which we hear plenty on the news but about which we do not know that much.” Ontario Street Theatre in Port Hope. Storefront Theatre is an affordable 40 seat venue for the public. Sean Carthew, who runs the venue now wants to raise money to renovate the theatre. It will cost him around CA$ 8,000. One remarkable thing is that Sean advertised other fundraising events through his campaign’s updates. He also had local businesses supporting him. He was able to raise all the funds in addition he was able to get more exposure on his offline fundraising efforts. He had media exposure from Snapd who did an article on his Kickstarter campaign. They were helping him with reaching more people. Northumberland Today did an interview with him about his campaign and plans for renovation. Family in Church, a new play by Pascale Roger-McKeever It is a play was made by the Belfry/Ça cloche dans ma caboche, a newly formed bilingual theatre company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The company received a grant covering partial costs and is now working to raise the remainder. Family In Church is a brutally honest tragic-comedy play exploring family dynamics when faced with the death of one of their daughter’s best friend. Equally self-centered, needy and desperate for attention, all four characters fight for recognition and love. The campaign’s target was to raise CA$ 5,000 and they successfully raised CA$ 5,260. The play was premiered in November 2011 with back-to-back openings in English and French. No media exposure was found for this show. Dog Sees God - Calgary Production Dog Sees God: Confessions of A Teenage Blockhead, is a play where the audience joins Charlie Brown and a gang in their cartoon world, navigating high school where they have become the classic angst-ridden teenagers of the modern world. This is a fresh take on the off-Broadway hit, performed by artists from Calgary. While satiric in nature, the play also paints a darker picture of the adolescent life, with themes of sexuality, bullying, suicide, and acceptance. This campaign’s goal was to raise CA$ 1,000 and they succeeded in raising CA$ 1,625. A Taste of Broadway A taste of Broadway is a delectable musical revue that offers the history of Broadway with nine decades of songs, served up in story, dance, images and song, performed by a team who call themselves the Perfectly Imperfect. Perfectly Imperfect is a team of nineteen seniors who like musicals and plays. The team wants to deliver a message that aging population is not necessarily ARTIVATE 9.1 128 a burden on the healthcare system, but they can contribute to the community as well. The campaign’s target was to raise CA$ 4,500 and they were successful. They’ve even provided a breakdown for their costs on their campaign page. The team had their show in June 2016 according to yyc seniors’ website. Two Monkeys Productions Presents Edges In January 2015, Sharon started Two Monkeys Productions to give herself and others more opportunities to hone their crafts. They produce shows with small casts (between two and ten performers), giving each player a chance to shine and be noticed. They were working on their first show called Edges. Edges is a contemporary song-cycle about four burgeoning adults asking classic coming-of-age questions as they explore what happens when they’re teetering on the edges of their lives. Their goal was to raise CA$ 1,000 and they’ve raised CA$ 2,005 which is double their target! According to their website, the show went on for two previews and nine runs. North Shore News did a piece on them. They’ve talked about their company and how they came up with the idea and their first show Edges. They had another piece about them on out TV. Like This Post (The Post at ) The Post at 750 is the home of the 110 Arts Cooperative, one of a handful of arts co-operatives that exist in all of Canada and is comprised of four different art organizations: DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Music on Main, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and Touchstone Theatre. This represents a broad spectrum of artistic disciplines including theatre, music, and media arts. Their goal is to create a space where artists can go and get inspired, work, plan and network. They’re raising money to fill the studios, community and activities spaces. Their vision of the 110 Arts Cooperative is to create a home for the City’s broad artistic community. Their target was to raise CA$ 15,000 and they’ve successfully raised CA$ 16,501. The institution has had great success and media coverage. Straight.com did an article covering their grand opening. 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