Monthly salary costs alone amount to UAH 2 mln: Ivan Franko Theater director Nyshchuk
The general director and artistic director of the Ivan Franko Theater, Yevhen Nyshchuk, has says that theatre struggles to pay salaries. Nyshchuk is a theater actor and former Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine.
"I remind you that the state finances national collectives, for example, the Franko Theater, only in terms of salaries, and then only 60%. We have a company of 600 people. Every month we need to find UAH 2 million for salaries. I am not talking about utilities, about development as such, about infrastructure transformations and so on. This is all completely our earnings. And this is normal," Nyshchuk said at the conference "Culture and Investments: Public-Private Partnership, Patronage, Investment Projects" in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He noted that sometimes he has to remind people that the state does not pay for productions and utility costs.
"It was the war that gave us a chance to psychologically restore the understanding that by investing in culture, you are investing first and foremost in security, because part of this culture opposes Russian narratives," he said.
Nyshchuk also said that tickets for theater performances abroad are sold out in a day, and in Ukraine, 800 seats for performances are sold out in 17 seconds through the Diia application.
"This suggests that we can talk to business in this way and set certain criteria and a price for what contribution an annual investment in the theater should make in order to get on our wall of gratitude," the general director said.