The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, the Toronto Centre for the Arts (TCA) and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts have fallen into bleak times — having trouble filling seats and relying on millions annually in subsidies from the city. The TCA, located at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue, has begun to consider unconventional measures to stay afloat. In the meantime, the City of Toronto Theatres Working Group (TWG) has been formed in order to evaluate and make recommendations to the theatres’ current operations.

“There had never been a business plan done with these theatres, and we realized that we need to make a better model,” said councillor Gary Crawford, who chairs the group. They expect to present recommendations early this year.

In May 2012, the city authorized the issuing of a request for expression of interest to find a buyer for one or all of the theatres with no luck.

“We didn’t receive anything that was substantive,” said Michael Williams, general manager of economic develop-ment and culture with the City of Toronto. Although his division recommended to the Toronto City Council’s executive committee that the TCA and the St. Lawrence Centre should continue to be subsidized, as they are more community-based than the Sony Centre, the executive committee disagreed.

“The executive directed staff to treat the Sony the same as the other two, which opened up a conversation around [working together],” Williams said.

Management from the TCA had already considered dividing up the mainstage into two smaller venues. “It’s important for us to concentrate on what the city gets out of us,” said Neil McGivney, director of finance and administration for the TCA. “Lots of smaller groups use the space — dance groups for their recitals and such. We need another space. This comes back to the idea of ‘What if we split up the mainstage?’ ” The TCA has already presented the idea to the city and will be presenting it with the working group as well.

Former TCA mainstage tenant Aubrey Dan still feels that selling is the best option. “The City of Toronto should look at that theatre as property and sell it to a developer,” said Dan. “They could possibly use that profit to put back into the theatre community to help it be more self-sufficient and less reliant on taxpayers.”