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Theater entrepreneur Heinersdorff: "We won't last long"
Photo: private
René Heinersdorff will remember the phone call with a viewer for a long time.
"That was at the beginning of March last year," says the theater maker.
"At first I thought she had a problem reserving her seats." But then he had to overhear the woman talking in a rage.
"She accused me that people are still playing and that I am putting people's health at risk," the 57-year-old summarizes the allegations.
»Back then, we private individuals had to beg for a ban on gambling.
We had no legal remit, not even a recommendation to close. "
It was certainly not an easy year for the theater people - especially for those who do not enjoy the comfortable security of a state stage, but have to earn their money on the free market.
With three established theaters in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Essen, Heinersdorff is one of the bigger boulevard theater makers.
But due to the corona pandemic, he quickly found himself in dire straits, as did the operators of the smaller houses.
"Thank God we have been able to build up a few reserves over the past 20 years, otherwise the lights would not go on for us," says the theater director.
Of course, the promised loss compensation for the second lockdown would also make it easier, and the moderate behavior of the subscribers could probably hold out until autumn.
It sounds as if Heinersdorff is not striving for a quick reopening of his theaters if theaters and concert halls are allowed to reopen their gates from March 22nd, according to the decision of the federal and state governments.
Hard to imagine for someone who is so passionate about his job.
In addition to managing the heinersdorff theaters, he is in demand as a director and often takes to the stage himself - and he has long since earned a good reputation as an author.
His plays fill the theaters of numerous stages across Europe.
In addition, there are appearances on television and the commitment as a representative of private theaters at the German Stage Association.
Programmed losses
There is a simple reason that he would prefer to postpone the game for a while.
It is to be feared that, although bans will be lifted, the corona requirements will not be relaxed.
In principle, the distance rules on the stage and in the foyers would still be manageable.
But not the gaps in the spectator stands.
"Running a house costs around 150,000 euros a month," calculates Heinersdorff.
“By limiting the number of viewers, we lose at least half of the income.
State-run theaters and concert halls can play under such conditions, but we can't hold out for long. ”In principle, this also applies to all other private theaters.
"Nobody makes it into the black below 70 percent utilization."
90 percent of the houses were already working close to the black zero.
His gloomy prognosis: In an emergency, one hundred of the approximately two hundred private theaters in Germany would be threatened in their existence.
On the other hand, the lot of the state operas, residence theaters, the large orchestras or choirs is completely different - their problem is rather to spend the budget allocated by municipalities, states or other public bodies in times of corona-related restrictions.
The rules stipulate that the need for the following year is based on the expenditure of the current year.
These luxury problems are offset by the concerns of privately operated theaters, which only receive subsidies in exceptional cases.
The example of private theaters also shows how unfairly the burdens are distributed in the fight against the corona pandemic.
A study published a good two weeks ago showed that the risk of corona infection in concert halls, theaters or cinemas is significantly lower than in churches, public transport or open-plan offices.
Because unlike there, the virus-contaminated air is cleaned much more effectively, even before Corona.
At full power, the ventilation systems ensure that the entire volume of air is completely replaced up to ten times per hour.
Why they still have to close, while the other areas remain almost unrestricted, not only the entrepreneurs concerned see less and less.
Little solidarity
A polarization can also be observed in the world of theater - on the one hand, those who are covered against any hardships, on the other, the freelance artists who are fighting for their existence.
Even with the much-invoked solidarity, it is not far off as soon as it demands more than lip service.
This became clear, for example, when Heinersdorff went public with a plea for a "theater swap based on solidarity" last May.
His wish: The Essen city theaters would like to make their large theaters and concert halls available for individual performances by his ensemble.
"We could have sold more tickets and only used a little electricity there," explains Heinersdorff.
However, those addressed let his request come to nothing with reference to the complex bureaucracy.
A reaction that still annoys the theater entrepreneur today.
Against this background, Heinersdorff thinks the open letter from the director of the Hamburg Thalia Theater, Joachim Lux, is almost cynical.
In the letter, which is also signed by many other directors of state theaters, Lux demands more support from the federal government for cultural institutions and independent theater professionals and artists.
In the Presidium of the German Stage Association, Heinersdorff made the suggestion that the - permanently employed and well-paid - executives of the state theaters should, for example, forego their thirteenth monthly salary - in order to help their less well-off colleagues.
"That would have been a widely visible sign from people who often and happily speak of solidarity," he explains.
However, the colleagues in the stage association would only have shaken their heads.
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