If you’ve checked out Buddies’ 2024 – 25 season tickets (and if you’ve already bought your tickets, we love you), you may have noticed that our pricing structure is slightly different than in past seasons. We’ve changed our pricing models in an effort to plan for long-term financial sustainability, while still providing lower-cost options to see our shows. Here’s the math.
Toronto Theatre Tickets at Market Value // Queer Theatre and Das Kapital
Like most professional Toronto theatre companies, we don’t break even on a show’s expenses through ticket revenue.
But even with grants, sponsorships, and our gorgeous donors pulling a lot of the weight to keep this place in sparkles, ticket revenue still matters to our overall budget and the sustainability of Buddies as a whole. That being said, we did a little math (it was kind of boring, but check out the notes below if you’re into that), and the “market price” of a ticket to one of our regular main stage season shows is $45,* not including fees on ticketing software, credit card fees, or our building fee (that one helps keep the space running… these gays need a place to work).
For example (and those of you working in production can skip this part if it makes you anxious), most of our shows take upwards of 3500 hours of work for our audience members to see a really nice 90 minutes. And we love to do it. And it’s so worth it. But it just costs a lot. The production breakdown is something like this:
- 10 people at 280 rehearsal hours each (director, stage manager, assistant stage manager, dramaturg, six actors)
- 3 – 4 designers at 150 hours each (hello lights, projections, costumes, sets, and sound!)
- 1 fight/intimacy director at 8 hours
And that’s just some of the humans during the rehearsal period. Then we add the hours/lives it took to write/create the show, additional prep work, the cost of set builds, costumes, program design + printing, our regular staff team, marketing costs, the building, and more.
SO, TLDR; it costs a lot of money to produce shows that are artistically rigorous and organizationally sustainable (i.e., trying not to burn everyone out in the process, planning for the future of queer performance art). We think it’s worth it. We hope you will too, when you come see our shows this season.
Subsidized Ticket Costs
HOWEVER! $45 ($53.85 CAD with taxes and fees) is not an accessible price for everyone. With that in mind, we’ve set aside a limited number of low-income ($10 + fees) and subsidized ($25 + fees) tickets each night for our mainstage shows. Because these tickets are limited, if the more expensive tickets are financially inaccessible for you, we encourage you to buy your tickets sooner rather than later.
All this being said, we understand that the low-income tickets are also not accessible to everyone. If you’d like to see a Buddies show and our reduced tickets are sold out or financially out of reach for you, please email tickets@buddiesinbadtimes.com and we’ll do our best to get you a seat. You can also volunteer with us and see our shows for free!
Theatre Tickets for The ~Financially Unburdened~
And all THAT being said, for other audience members, $45 is a small fee to pay for a show (and a sexy queer evening out on the town). If that’s you, we encourage you to check out our $75 tickets ($75 purchases come with a virtual forehead kiss, let us know if you don’t receive it in three to five business days). These tickets also help us offer more subsidized tickets for those who can’t afford to pay our market value ($45) tickets. They also reflect the value of well-produced art and the gathering space we endeavour to create when you come to a Buddies show.
We’re also always interested in sponsorships and financial support to offer an increased number of low-income and subsidized tickets to folks who need them, because really, we think that being able to engage with art and creative queer space is essential and enlivening and just… fun (FUN? In this economy?). If you’re a business or individual who’d like to sponsor our subsidized ticket program, allowing more people to engage with the work that we make, drop us a line.
Other Ways To Support Buddies
If you’re looking for other ways to support Buddies, financially or otherwise, check out our Support page.
You can also show up between 6:30 – 7:30PM before our mainstage shows begin at 7:30PM and grab a pre-show drink (alcoholic or not) from our friends at Talullah’s Cabaret. If you’re a chronically late queer… for you, the show starts at 6:30PM (this is a call out of the writer of this blog, who has promised to stop asking the bartenders for pre-show drinks at 7:29PM).
Talullah’s also hosts exceptional queer nightlife events all year round, and is open Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 6:30PM – 12AM, and Friday and Saturday 6:30PM – 2AM.
You can keep up to date on Talullah’s events, drink specials, and yearn after our bartenders by checking out @TallulahsCabaret on Instagram.
We’re really excited to welcome you to Buddies this year, and grateful that you want to invest in the future of queer art. Thanks for being here. We’ll see you soon.
*Some of our shorter-run shows (like Oraculum, the 2024–25 season) begin at a higher price point, because we have less performances to cover the production costs. Keep an eye out for ticket giveaways and snag those low-cost tickets if this show is on your must-see list!