The grant from the 100-year Foundation of Kymi joint-stock company will secure the operation of Kuusankoski Theatre for the years 2023 and 2024.
– The grant is a huge help, and it comes at an important moment. We have been in heavy discussions in the early part of the year to see if we have any chance at all to continue operating,” says Eklund-Vuorela.
The director will not yet reveal the exact amount of the grant, but it is intended to cover a budget shortfall of around €20 000-30 000 in the coming years.
– The background to this is the subsidy cuts and interest rate pandemic made by the City of Kouvola in recent years, which hit our economy quite hard.
Four employees hired
Kuusankoski theater is a professionally managed theater, but the acting is done by enthusiasts.
– Our actors are ordinary people who feel that theater is just the right hobby for them.
In addition to the theater director, hired employees include a set designer, a costume designer and a technician.
– In an ideal situation, I could tell the stage manager that you have free hands. Our costume designer is an incredible wizard. He often has to think about how to do something with 5 euros that actually costs 500 euros, says Eklund-Vuorela.
Time to relax in the theatre
Thanks to the grant, the theater gets some breathing time. The theater is now going to think about ways to secure operations long into the future. Additional support from the city is unlikely to be received in the next few years due to Kouvola’s challenging economic situation.
High rents have long been the main cause of trouble. The theater operates on two stages in the Kuusankoski building, and it pays considerable rent to the city of Kouvola.
– Our walls are expensive. This has been a difficult equation for both me and my predecessors.
Over the years, moving out of Kuusankoskitalo has been thought about several times.
– We don’t have savings that could be used to renovate a new theater space elsewhere. These facilities were made especially for us in the 1980s.
The roots of theater activities in Kuusankoski go back to the beginning of the 20th century. Eklund-Vuorela had already made a plan for the descent before finding out about the grant.
– I would definitely not have agreed to that, that the activity would just fade away. If necessary, it would have been postponed until the end of the year and a final performance would have been made, the smoke of which would have been visible all the way to Lahti.