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| Western Springs Firing Highlights Business/Community Crossroads |
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| By Kerry Reid | Theatre |
| 6:00 PM, May 21, 2009 | Updated 6:13 PM, Jul 17, 2009 |
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After serving as the artistic director for Theatre of Western Springs (TWS) for the last five seasons, Jack Phillips was informed by the company’s board of governors on May 1 that his contract would not be renewed for the upcoming season. Publicist Ginny Richardson, who serves pro bono as the chair of the publicity, marketing and promotion committee for TWS, said in a written statement received by PerformInk on May 6 that, “The Theatre of Western Springs’ policy is not to discuss publicly any staffing or personnel issues. After thorough deliberation by the board of governors, a decision was made to not offer Mr. Phillips a contract for the 2009-10 season.”
For his part, Phillips, who was involved with TWS in the 1960s and early 1970s as an active member and assumed the artistic director’s post in 2004, said that he was not given any specific reason for the board’s vote. He also indicated that he did not receive an annual performance review this year. Phillips will close out his tenure with TWS by directing Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, running May 28-June 7. “I’ve been a working theatre professional for 30 years and there have been awkward situations before. But these are really good people we’re working with and we’re all dedicated to doing the best show we can,” Phillips says. But the decision hasn’t sat well with many of the theatre’s active members, who presented a petition to the nine-member Board of Governors at a meeting on Monday, May 11. The petition, signed by 46 active members, requested that Phillips be reinstated. TWS member Sarah Herndon, who spearheaded the petition drive, also presented the board with statements from 14 members in support of Phillips. Herndon is now collecting signatures to request a special meeting in June in order to discuss possible changes in the company bylaws concerning personnel decisions. Phillips says he has no reason to expect that the board will reverse its decision. “They have said publicly that they are not going to reverse it. I am not encouraging or discouraging any movement on the part of the actives, but I do appreciate the great support that’s being shown.” TWS, founded by Mary Cattell in 1929, operates in a manner that is unique for community theatres. Though the company employs full-time staff, most of the operational decisions and day-to-day administrative tasks are carried out by the “actives,” who in addition to being subscribers, must also complete the Studio I acting class (currently taught by Phillips), and also commit to working behind the scenes or in front of the house each season. Both the selection of the season and the casting of shows is done by a committee, rather than the artistic director or the guest directors. There are no auditions for shows at TWS—instead, the casting committee sends out letters 10 weeks before the first rehearsal inviting various active members who have completed the Studio course to accept roles in the upcoming shows. The level of volunteer commitment (the company website puts the active membership at 330, though Phillips estimates the current number as 250) is impressive, but it also means that the artistic director has far less control than at other theatres. And for some longtime members of TWS, the dismissal of Phillips seems like d?j^ vu all over again—the board also declined to renew the contract of Tony Vezner, who served as artistic director from 1998-2004, without giving any reason. Says Vezner, who now teaches theatre at Concordia University in California, “The board of governors is responsible for everything that goes on at the theatre. The buck really stops with them.” However, Vezner doesn’t discount the strength of the volunteer core of the company. “I think the membership program is viable. It creates a strong sense of ownership and volunteerism for those dirty jobs that in other community theatres nobody wants to do. It’s the kind of commitment you usually get with smaller ensembles in the city.” Jeff Arena, the former managing director for TWS from 1998-2002, whose contract was also not renewed by the board, notes that the makeup of the all-volunteer board of governors can itself change from year to year, and thus so do the aims and goals of the board. “In my case, there was enormous discussion about whether or not they needed a managing director. I was the first one. I was hired by a board that was committed to that.” (Bill Hammack is currently the managing director for TWS.) Arena, who is now director of marketing for Elgin Community College and served as executive director for Defiant Theatre from 1996-98 and was also a four-year board member for Circle Theatre , also says that “the weakness of volunteers is that they are usually less organized and have less time to devote than a fulltime person would. Their personnel procedures [at TWS] were just not anything like what contemporary standards would be.” Arena says that he did receive annual reviews from the board, “but you’re being reviewed without necessarily a firm personnel process in place. My reviews differed dramatically in their shape and structure each time I had one.” Those active members supporting Phillips made a special point of highlighting the community outreach component he has brought to TWS, specifically through the company’s partnership with Aging Well, a nonprofit dedicated to lifelong learning for senior citizens. Under Phillips’ leadership, TWS now sponsors play reading and discussion programs at a senior walk-in center in Western Springs and at a retirement center. Herndon, who has been active with TWS since fall of 2006 and has been directed in shows twice by Phillips, says, “I have never met such an excellent director in all respects. He is without ego, he doesn’t play favorites, he is kind to everyone, and he always has a positive outlook.” For his part, Phillips says, “If they feel they need to go ahead without me, that is their right and their privilege.” But in the view of Herndon and other active TWS members, it’s time for the 81-year-old theatre to revisit the way it handles hiring and firing staff to give the active members a more active voice. |
