Kristine Thatcher, BoarsHead Theater's artistic director, received a letter May 28 informing her that her contract would not be renewed when it expires Aug. 31. Photo: BoarsHead Theater

BoarsHead board cites loss of donations as reason for Thatcher firing

By Bridgette M. Redman

LANSING - Lansing's BoarsHead Theater, one of three professional Michigan theaters this month to announce the termination of its top artistic executive, is restructuring its organization to proceed without an artistic director and with a more active board.

On May 28, BoarsHead's artistic director Kristine Thatcher received a letter informing her that her contract would not be renewed when it expires Aug. 31. Tipping Point Theater, which posted its opening for a new producing artistic director this week, announced the resignation of its executive director, Christina Johnson, in late May. The Jewish Ensemble Theater announced in early June that its founding artistic director Evelyn Orbach is no longer with the theater. She had been honored the previous year for 20 years of service.

The BoarsHead decision was sparked by the loss of foundation money and an expected decrease in donations from businesses, individuals, board members and underwriters. The theater is expecting that there will be close to a $200,000 shortfall in revenue in 2009-2010.

The decision was made during a closed board session on May 27 and a letter was delivered to Thatcher the next day at her home. The board determined that it could not afford the salaries of two executives. Executive director John Dale Smith, who joined the staff in 2008, will be charged with reorganizing the theater.

BoarsHead projects shortfall next season

Smith said the budget was relying on ticket sales, donations and gifts as grants and government money has been drying up.

"The Pasant Foundation had given us at least $50,000 every year. It was built into the budget this year and it dried up," Smith said. "The economy is also affecting the choices people are making. They're not coming to BoarsHead Theater as much as they used to."

Board Chair Larry Meyer, a former Lansing city council member and retired CEO of the Michigan Retailers Association, identified season ticket subscriptions, donors and business sponsorships as the three metrics that drive the theater and that all three amounts were down.

He also pointed out that while the 2008-2009 season made money, with a projected profit of $22,488, that was due to two significant one-time gifts from Jackson National and Meijer.

According to a financial audit filed with the city, BoarsHead's net assets grew from a deficit of $63,288 in 2007 to a surplus of $13,305 as of June 30, 2008, a trend that continues a deficit reduction that has been steady since Thatcher's arrival in 2005. Their cash balance increased from $79,927 as of June 30, 2007 to $182,281 as of June 30, 2008.

However, ticket sales dropped from $330,731 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007 to $280,692 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. While Meyer was unable to confirm whether ticket sales figures were up or down for 2008-2009, he did say they were below expectations. In 2008, the shortfall in ticket sales was made up with $116,477 in increased contributions.

Board: artistic director expendable

Faced with a projected deficit, Smith said that every decision the theater and the board makes now must be based on finances. Meyer agreed, saying that the ongoing value of BoarsHead is that arts and culture are "an integral part of a downtown fabric."

"I certainly understand the business side very well," said Meyer, while admitting, "I don't understand the theater part of it. I'm just an old hockey guy."

When asked whether the board would renew Thatcher's contract if additional donations or sponsorships were to change the financial situation of the theater, both Meyer and Smith said that such an answer would be pure speculation.

"We have got to lower the cost of the Boarshead," Meyer said. "We will continue to have high quality artistic presentation. We'll get at it in a different way."

The fiscal year 2009-2010 has $27,230 budgeted for artistic direction — a cut from the $59,135 salary that Thatcher was paid. Meyer said that number would not be used for a salaried position, but to pay for the necessary artistic direction.

"There will be artistic direction," he said. "There will be that critical element of the artistic product that will be properly addressed. There is not currently a plan. We have discussed it in broad terms and I would hope that within a couple weeks we'll have some announcements."

He said the board is active, works very closely together and that they will make the future direction of BoarsHead work.

Paul Shaheen, a past board chair who left the BoarsHead board for health reasons a few years ago, said he has always been impressed with Thatcher. He also thought adding Smith to the staff last year made a lot of sense as it shifted fund-raising duties from Thatcher to Smith.

"(Thatcher) is not a fundraiser, she's an artistic director. She's not a business manager, she's an artistic director," Shaheen said. "There has been conflict with expecting one person to do too much. I thought the decision to hire a fundraiser was a rational one. Kristine was an absolute asset, but sometimes you can't afford your assets. I think the world of Kristine. I think she has brought us many quality shows."

Shaheen said selecting shows that people will pay for can be a difficult process. He observes that Wharton will fill a house with $80 tickets while BoarsHead will have a half-full theater when their tickets are $25.

"The stuff at BoarsHead is quality theater. It challenges the mind, it challenges the community, and it presents quality discussion. I just don't know if Lansing will support that. This community is struggling, but the mayor and everyone else has done everything they can humanly do to ensure the success of BoarsHead."

Artistic community calls decision short-sighted

Many in the artistic community have questioned whether eliminating the artistic director is the best way to achieve financial success.

Paul Slade Smith, playwright of Unnecessary Farce which Thatcher premiered at the BoarsHead, said Thatcher is the person that has made the difference in the recent successes of BoarsHead.

"I understand money is down and cuts have to be made," Slade Smith said. "I feel absolutely confident that the board members are blind to what the BoarsHead Theater is if they think they can remove Kristine Thatcher from that picture and still have the theater. She isn't a staff member with a salary of $50,000. She is the theater."

Slade Smith pointed out that the BoarsHead staff is already quite small and that one reason the staff and the artists worked so hard and for so little was because of what Thatcher inspired in them. He said without her at the BoarsHead for the past four years, BoarsHead would have already failed.

"The board is cutting off their nose to spite their face. John Dale Smith has done clearly an excellent job at bringing money in, which is grea — I know that Kristine has admired him for doing that and for successfully doing his job, but Kristine Thatcher is that theater. That theater cannot survive without Kristine Thatcher or an equivalent. If you're going to find someone else with that drive, enthusiasm and artistic vision who has their own staff to follow them (then you can replace Kristine). But what is the chance of that when Kristine has such a connection to Lansing?"

Slade Smith agrees with Meyer that BoarsHead is important to Lansing and its downtown.

"It's very important for Lansing, which is going through a hard time, to keep this institution alive," Slade Smith said. He added, though, that Meyer, "doesn't have any idea how fortunate he is to have Kristine there. There are very few like her. I would like to provide the City of Lansing with a crystal ball for the folks on city council, those who are dreaming for a future of the city, for the subscribers, and supporters. I would like them to look in the crystal ball and see four years ahead and see how it will change. Look at how BoarsHead has changed since she came in. After Geoffrey Sherman and his tenure, BoarsHead was teetering on closing. She has brought so much and so many and given them purpose. I’m promising Lansing that if you pull her out, BoarsHead is going to be a shell."

Slade Smith said there are many hard choices that can be made when a theater company is facing financial hardship, but that the first one shouldn't be firing an artistic director. Instead, they can select shows with smaller casts, reduce production costs, or even reduce other staff positions.

"If you don't have art, what's the point of raising money?" Slade Smith says. "Kristine Thatcher is the show at BoarsHead. The irony is that she is the one who loses her job because the money people didn't bring in the money. Her job is not in a vacuum, but her job is to create the art. No one can argue that the product that has been in there was anything but phenomenal."

Michael Joseph Mitchell, who has appeared in several shows at BoarsHead during Thatcher's tenure, was also shocked at the news.

"I find it tragic in the extreme. Nothing against John Dale Smith who has been a sweetheart to me, but in my experience, Kristine has been the heart and soul of BoarsHead Theater. What makes that theater is a whole collective of amazing, soulful people giving their all. Kristine's leadership and loving support of all those who work for her has been the heart and soul of that place. I was just speechless when I heard. I'm just crushed about it and my heart so goes out to everyone there. They must feel utterly lost. I cannot for the life of me understand why they think this theater can or should proceed without Kristine."

Co-founding director John Peakes was quoted in the Lansing City Pulse as saying he wasn't certain he wanted to return to BoarsHead in the fall as planned to star in Beau Jest with Carmen Decker because of how Kristine was treated.

Decker said she isn't sure what she wants to do, calling the whole situation sad and sickening, and one in which there are no winners or losers.

"I do feel really badly for Kristie. This is a job she's really wanted," Decker said. "She wanted it from the beginning when Geoffrey Sherman got it. I think it was too bad she didn't get it then. He was here such a short time and that kind of interrupted things without making a lot of headway. Then she did get it and it was something she really, really wanted. I feel really badly because I think she is a really talented lady. I've known her for so long — I'd like to think that I'm a friend of hers — it's just sad what's happening here."

Neighboring professional theaters react

Executives from other professional theaters in the area understand the struggle that the theater is facing to be financially solvent in hard economic times.

John Lepard, executive director of Williamston Theatre, said they also search for ways to keep their doors open.

"At this time, I am taking other jobs because I'm not paying myself to be the executive director here," Lepard said. "When stuff happens, we cut back on people's salaries."

Meyer said Thatcher's contract did not allow them to negotiate a pay cut or other terms of her employment.

Lepard pointed out that Williamston has a far smaller operation than BoarsHead, and that he isn't sure what he would do if he were in their situation.

"They have a different set of bylaws," Lepard said. "When you need to make up a deficit of $200,000 — I'm not sure how we would change things. I know we're planning for next season. We have picked shows that will be less expensive knowing that we're not out of the woods. We're in survival mode ourselves. They might be doing the same kind of thing — starting with Beau Jest and The Nerd and Wait Until Dark. These shows are aimed at getting some butts in the seat. I hope it works. I don't want to see anything happen to BoarsHead. I want them to stay. I want to see Kristie stay."

Lepard added that the Williamston bylaws were set up with input from Jeff Daniels and the Purple Rose Theatre Company.

"We asked for their bylaws so we wouldn't get into something where a board could fire Tony (Caselli, Williamston's artistic director). Our bylaws would not allow our board to fire him. They can fire me. They could ask me to get rid of anyone on the staff. We had a lot of people say 'Make sure you know what those bylaws are about and make sure you know how you have it set up so that you can't end up losing control of your theater.'"

John Neville-Andrews directed the most recent show at BoarsHead, The Glass Menagerie. He is also the artistic director for the Michigan Shakespeare Festival.

"I find it disappointing and puzzling that the BoarsHead board of trustees would make what appears to be such a hasty decision in letting Kristine Thatcher go," he said. "If, as they claim, it's for economic reasons, then there are numerous other ways to cut expenses and balance budgets without firing the very person they need in a time of financial turmoil: someone with a history of and experience in running a theater. Many other theater companies, mine included, have found fundamental ways to cut back on budgets and instigate creative funding initiatives to counteract any shortfall without firing anyone. I would like to think that this would have been a solution the BoarsHead trustees explored."

On June 8, Thatcher received a best director and best professional play award from the Lansing City Pulse's Pulsar Awards. At the awards ceremony, she received multiple standing ovations and several people praised her from the podium when receiving their awards.

"I was very proud of this past season," Thatcher said the week before the awards. "I'm very proud of my staff. They're all wonderful and there are only about seven of us left. They worked so hard and I'm so proud of the whole staff. I would really like to thank the people who have supported the theater, especially the subscribers who have come out show after show."

Thatcher began her career at BoarsHead before moving on to Chicago. She returned to BoarsHead in 2005 for what she called her dream job.

"I love the theater, I love my staff, and I love my audiences," Thatcher said. "There has been an outpouring of support that really is the silver lining. I didn't realize I had so many good, good friends."

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