A survey carried out among 71 theatres in Gozo and Malta revealed that 554 productions were put up during 2009 for a total audience of 345,479 persons. The survey carried out by the National Statistics Office revealed that just over half the theatres had a capacity of less than 300 seats while another quarter had a capacity of 600 seats or more. Ownership of these theatres was almost equally shared between the Church, public and private organisations.

During the year under review, these theatres put up a total of 554 productions, with an average of 7.8 productions per theatre. Fifty-two per cent of the total productions were organised by the theatres themselves, while the remaining were organised by external organisations. An increase of 17 per cent was recorded in the number of productions when compared to the previous year.

The 554 works staged during 2009 were performed 1,026 times, leading to an increase of 22 per cent in the number of performances over the previous year. The average number of performances per production during the year under review stood at 1.9. Concerts accounted for a quarter of total performances during 2009. These were followed by dramas (18 per cent) and comedies other than the Maltese comedy (11 per cent).

Total attendance stood at 345,479, up by 19 per cent over the previous year, or an average of 337 per performance. Operas turned out to have the highest attendance rates, with an average of 630 persons per performance. Other high values were recorded for Maltese comedies (fares), dance performances and other comedies. The average theatre-seat utilisation rate for all types of productions stood at 50 per cent.

During 2009, these theatres employed 80 persons on a full-time basis and another 79 on a part-time basis. Another 1,614 individuals were working with these theatres on a voluntary basis. There was a drop of 42 per cent in the number of paid workers when compared to the previous year.

Total expenditure by these theatres was estimated at €4.9 million in 2009, a drop of 28 per cent when compared to 2008. Nearly 30 per cent of these expenses were staff costs, while another 21 per cent were spent on maintenance and administrative expenses. Income generated by these theatres also declined by 23 per cent when compared to 2008 levels, to €5.7 million. Services provided by these theatres, which include hiring of facilities for productions organised by external organisations, continued to account for the highest share (80 per cent) of this income.

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