The president of the Royal Theater, Gregorio Marañón referred this Thursday to the current political situation in Spain following the letter from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which he announced that he was taking a few days to reflect on his continuity in La Moncloa, ensuring that “polarization is the most negative thing about the democratic system“.
“Those of us who have a civic sense, looking towards the future, believe that polarization is the most negative element that all democratic systems have,” the manager lamented at an informative breakfast, putting the Teatro Real as a “good example” of an institution. governed by “agreements.”
In this sense, Marañón recalled that The “success” of the Teatro Real, “apart from” the “extraordinary” staff it has, is having “stable bodies” in its day-to-day life and independence achieved thanks to the political agreements that have allowed continuity in these years.
Marañón has reviewed the current situation of the Teatro Real, such as its financial status. Thus, he has pointed out that despite having an economic model of public participation “with clearly lower percentages” than other European theaters, “unique” results are being achieved.
“It is also very different from the North American model, where citizens can pay their taxes by donating to cultural institutions. Whenever you can get a little more, it will help, but our model is unique“, he defended, adding that the percentages of public financing have reached 33%, in addition to more than 20% contributions from civil society through patronage.
The rest is income generated by the theater itself, mainly from the box office, so there is 45% of the Real project that is financed “with the success of the public.” Furthermore, the president of the institution explained that the average occupancy of the theater is 93%, with a total of 18,000 subscribers.
All this despite recognizing that The current programming season is being “a bit atypical”, because “it has necessarily come to pick up the remains of the pandemic” that could not be scheduled at the time due to restrictions.
Marañón has also celebrated the institution’s sustainability project, which initially received 5.5 million euros from Next Generation funds who have financed the conversion of the roof of their building with solar panels. Thanks to this operation, the theater has managed to sell surplus electricity worth 100,000 euros.
As to young people who come to Real, the manager has revealed that including the general rehearsals, it is a “very high” percentage. “In the general rehearsals there is no cost and we reserve a very high percentage for young people: there is a percentage of 15%-20% with highly incentivized tickets,” he acknowledged.
Finally, he also referred to the cancellation in February of the show by a Chinese company, Shen Yun Performing Arts, ensuring that it was not a decision due to pressure from the Chinese embassy itself, but rather for “technological reasons.” “It is one more case for technological reasons, the need to operate in the scenario. We have done it dozens of times and the programming of the theater and the use of its spaces is the sole and exclusive decision of the theater itself,” he concluded.
