After nearly three-and-a-half decades of promoting science for school children and providing accessible spaces for theatre, dance, and music shows, Evergreen Theatre Society is folding.

The decision to fold came about as a result of financial pressures on the society, and term ending of a $5.5 million Social Enterprise Fund (SEF) million loan taken out by Evergreen.

Sean Fraser, Executive Director for the Evergreen Theatre Society said that the decision to call in that loan by the SEF meant that operations of the society were no longer viable, and that June 30 would be the final day of operations for both the theatre and the various companies that used the Evergreen Community Spaces in the Crossroads communities.

“They’re taking it back and not to operate it. They are not interested in operating it. What they want to do is liquidate it. They want their money out of it, so that’s what will happen,” said Fraser.

“We’ve toyed with things back and forth about what to do, but to be honest with you, we’re just at a point where we’re so exhausted and the time is just that.”

He said that the recent outpouring of support after the announcement that the society would close has been touching, but that the staff at the society were ready to hang up their hats held high, and move on.

“We’ve been around for 34 years. We had a 10-year run here. We’ve helped millions of Albertans and Calgarians realize all kinds of things. We did a good job. We did it with integrity. We did it with heart. As difficult as it is, we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” Green said.

“As sad as it will be, it might just be time to move on to the next chapter.”

The Social Enterprise Fund, for their part, said that they recognized the role that Evergreen had played in Calgary’s cultural community and that the completion of the 10-year loan would have long-term impacts on artists, employees, and patrons.

“The Social Enterprise Fund remains committed to supporting our community’s cultural vitality and is one of only a few impact investors that support the arts and culture sector in Alberta. We pride ourselves on being a patient and flexible funder,” said Ryan Young, Director of the Social Enterprise Fund.

“When loans are not repaid, it affects our ability to support other impactful community initiatives that also need resources. As a responsible steward of investment capital, we must ensure that our funds are managed prudently so we can continue investing in mission-driven organizations and initiatives, maximizing our support of Alberta’s social economy.”

Young said that he did not have an update on the future of the Evergreen Community Spaces building, but would be sharing that plan as soon as it was available.

Among the organizations affected by the closure were the resident companies of Evergreen Theatre, Alberta Playwrights, Arch Technical, Tockiy Vocal Studios, Hive and Heart, Three Left Feet, and Sky Castle.

A significant number of community groups and companies also used the space, including Yalenka Ukrainian Dance, Croatian Heritage, Calaway Park for show auditions and rehearsals, Mint Entertainment, Calgary Folkdance Fridays, and Bollywood Signature, among dozens of companies and organizations.

Fraser said the loss came down to a perception that the arts are nice to have instead of essential elements of society building.

“There’s really no excuse for all of these sorts of conservative ideas that arts and culture and those kinds of things are superfluous. There’s just no excuse for it. All kinds of other cultures figured it out a long time ago: dance, music, art, all of that is a part of who they are,” he said.

“I’ve got 14-year-old boys being forced by their parents here to dress up in costumes and dance around in rehearsals. I’m quite sure they would rather not be doing that, but it’s part of the culture. The Western world doesn’t see it that way. It sees it as a superfluous ‘wouldn’t it be nice,’ even though it really affects people’s worlds all the time—music, television, art, design, colour, all of those things which fall into those realms.”

Over the years, several shows workshopped at the Evergreen Community Spaces have gone on to have mainstream showings in Calgary.

Money down, but not enough

Fraser said that the society had been able to pay interest on the $5.5 million loan.

Financial statements filed with the Government of Canada showed that the society had paid $222,945 in interest and bank charges in 2024, $259,684 in 2023, $181,074 in 2022, $215,719 in 2021, and $232,540 in 2020, for a total of more than $1.11 million.

During that time, following accounting rules, the value of the Evergreen Community Spaces building was reduced in 2024 to $3,505,411.

“Because of that, with every financial cycle, we became a bad risk. We became a mismanaged organization. There was no way to realize the idea that we were sitting on this capital, on this capital piece that we own on this asset, and that really hurt us,” said Fraser.

He said the calling in of the loan by SEF meant that the building value would not cover the loan and that the remainder would fall on the society to cover. An amount that was impossible to cover, and therefore caused the society to effectively close.

“They are also coming after us for putting a judgment against the organization for the balance of the money, which basically renders the society inoperable. We’ve been in Hail Mary time for quite some time. The only way that could happen is that somebody would have to step up, government or others, with a cheque for five and a half million dollars at least, to pay them out, to get them out of the scenario, and then we could consider looking at moving along,” Fraser said.

“The problem at this point is, is that most groups will have looked for other options. We couldn’t hold out any more out of fairness to folks.”

He said the sadness came from the initial vision of taking on the loan from the SEF to provide more stability from the whims of funding.

“The idea originally was that if Evergreen could get situated and established, we would have an asset of property that would belong to the society. We could look for an opportunity to pay that down, and then the society would essentially be self-sustaining… and then we could basically stop bothering the government and sort of stand on our own two feet.”

“What ended up happening, though, is that that was a much harder proposition than we realized it was going to be because of the fact that the way that government invests money into not-for-profits. They’ve got this very strict thought process around what they consider debt.”

For Evergeen, although that meant that the society was able to generate significant amounts of revenue to cover the operations of the building and the society on a lean budget, the interest payments put the society into a financial situation where they were considered a bad investment.