some quick thoughts on that skylight press release. first, the board is fairly begging bill theisen to return. and yet there's this (my emphasis):
At a full meeting of the Board of Directors last night, it was resolved to establish communications with Bill Theisen regarding the role of Artistic Director at The Skylight.
in other words, under what conditions? has the board suddenly found an artistic director's salary lying around? or is that to be negotiated?
The Board would like to accept and embrace the many offers it has received for benefit performances, assistance in fundraising, and donations. Anyone interested in helping The Skylight can e-mail the board at friendsofskylight@skylightopera.com.
from what i can gather, there have been two such offers. generous, yes. would this community do it? certainly. especially if the offers were matched by the board. would this community call eric dillner to offer their help? highly doubtful.
then, the kicker:
The board continues to support Eric Dillner and the entire staff of The Skylight who have filled in and carried on during this time. They deserve the respect and appreciation of all.
skylight staff? yup. absolutely. wherever they stand, this has got to have been a tough time. but to suggest that eric dillner deserves anyone's respect at this point is beyond laughable.
a press release from the the skylight opera theatre board of directors:
From the Board of Directors of the Skylight Opera Theatre
The Board of Directors greatly appreciates the recent public and donor messages of concern and support for The Skylight’s artistic product. We have read, heard, and discussed them all, and thank everyone who has expressed support for The Skylight.
At a full meeting of the Board of Directors last night, it was resolved to establish communications with Bill Theisen regarding the role of Artistic Director at The Skylight. The Board sincerely hopes Bill will agree to return to The Skylight as its Artistic Director for the company’s 50th Anniversary Season. We continue to respect Bill’s artistic ability and his value to The Skylight and to the Milwaukee arts community. The Board remains committed to strengthening The Skylight’s financial position so that it can continue to serve as a creative force in the Milwaukee community -- and as an employer able to showcase a variety of artists for years to come. Our old organizational structure is not fiscally sustainable in these economic times. The Board’s strategic plan emphasizes establishing an overall structure including artistic adminstration that will work for The Skylight now and can be adapted when finances improve.
The Board would like to accept and embrace the many offers it has received for benefit performances, assistance in fundraising, and donations. Anyone interested in helping The Skylight can e-mail the board at friendsofskylight@skylightopera.com.
The board continues to support Eric Dillner and the entire staff of The Skylight who have filled in and carried on during this time. They deserve the respect and appreciation of all.
TAKE CARE OF THIS HOUSE From the musical "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" (Alan Jay Lerner / Leonard Bernstein)
(Here in this shell of a house This house that is struggling to be Falling through the hall Coming straight through the wall Is hope staring down at me But there's nothing you can see Sadness will flow down a cheek Courage stand out like a tree
Joy, joy is as bright As a comet in flight But hope isn't easy to see.)
Take care of this house Keep it from harm If bandits break in sound the alarm Care for this house Shine it by hand And keep it so clean The glow can be seen all over the land
Be careful at night Check all the doors If someone makes off with a dream The dream will be yours
Take care of this house Be always on call For this house is the home of us all
Be careful at night Check all the doors If someone makes off with a dream The dream will be yours
Take care of this house Be always on call For this house its the home of us all
about 65 protesters showed up at the skylight opera theatre's 4 p.m. board of directors meeting today at 411 e. wisconsin avenue to protest the seemingly haphazard restructuring of the company, which included firing artistic director bill theisen and four others.
singers, actors, former and current artistic directors, and others carried signs and sang scary protest songs like "bring back, bring back, oh bring back my skylight to me, to me," (to the tune of "my bonnie") as selected skylight staff and board members entered the building.
"we saw several staff members drive in – no eric [dillner] though – and several board members, some of whom were on our side and gave us 'thumbs up" one of the protesters reported.
to these folks there's been a death in the family. the skylight was financially ill, and the folks in charge looked at the patient and decided to remove it's heart.
Many of those on the sidewalk have been busy online, calling for Dillner to be fired and Theisenreinstated. They were encouraged to hear that Colin Cabot, a key player in the company's transition to institutional status and the force behind the development of the company's Broadway Theatre Center, had flown in from his New England home to address the board. He is no longer a member, but he wields considerable influence.
The crowd greeted Cabot as a white knight, and many hugs were exchanged after he crossed Wisconsin Avenue. Though he hasn't lived in Milwaukee in 12 years, Cabot seemed to remember everyone's name.
one wonders how many of those names current managing director ericdillner would know.
the milwaukee theatre community is holding it's collective breath tonight, as the board meeting went into closed session at about 5:40 pm, presumably to discuss the unfolding crisis. colincabot greets protesters old friends.
those musical theatre types are a scary bunch, huh?
that smiling woman will be thrilled her photo is on 'the nets.'
colincabot talks to the crowd, crowd is amazed someone is talking to them.
the lovely and talented j. michael brennan chimes in on the skylight, and that roof situation (my italics):
I am very glad to hear that Colin [Cabot] is still involved to some degree: he brings a much needed perspective to this mess.
Having been part of Skylight during those tough times as the company was making the transition from tire garage to its own house, and having many conversations with Colin about his goals, dreams and vision, it has always been clear to me that a large measure of Skylight's success was the bi-lateral push and pull between the often conflicting artistic and business sides. I hope he can reinstate this balance, and I further hope it leads the Skylight down a path that reinstates Bill Theisen at some point in the future (not having met Bill, but the passion with which my friends defend him speaks volumes.)
It's also enlightenging that Colin points out almost parenthetically that it was with his assistance that the roof repair problem was offset by a vigorous fund raising effort. Wasn't the roof repair crisis used as justification for why staff cuts were necessary, and now we find out that with Colin's assistance, those costs were offset? What is needed here is an advocate who will protect both sides of the business.
It speaks volumes of the Skylight legacy that almost fifteen years after having spent a few seasons there, I feel as passionate and as much a part of its history now as I did then.
acting as broadway theatre center landlord, eric dillner sought the input and advice of btc tenants to help manage the building:
“The Broadway Theatre Center is owned by the Skylight,” says Skylight Managing Director Eric Dillner, who came to the Milwaukee via Shreveport, La., in March. “We prefer that people see us as an artistic organization, but in reality the building facility is a huge part of our life here.”
So improving the Studio Theatre must be balanced with the reality of a $200,000 sidewalk repair, a $300,000 upgrade to the air conditioning, and other building issues.
Recently, the Broadway began hosting monthly “tenant meetings” to talk about building and management issues. And the Center has brought in planners and architects to discuss how to move ahead with updating the building. Still, an open question is whether it will include an expansion of the Studio Theatre.
"If your brother sins against you, go and point out the fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won him over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."
the list of direct grants awarded to organizations by the nea through the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009has been released. skylight opera theatre is not among the recipients.
the skylight theatre'swisconsin arts board grant application, dated april 28, 2009, "seeks partial funding for the salaries of artistic director, company manager, and music director." the application asks what the effect would be on the applying organization should the position be eliminated. here's the skylight's narrative for artistic director:
Responsible for artistic leadership, casting seven productions, and stage direction of four productions in 2009-10. This position has been key to Skylight's success in producing the full spectrum of music theatre for the past fifty years by providing cohesive artistic quality control throughout our opera, musical, cabaret, and educational programming. The loss of this position threatens this quality control, and because the position is scheduled to direct four productions next season, we would likely have to reduce the number of productions.
under the skylight theater's current restructuring plan, managing director ericdillner has assumed the duties of artistic director and, one would assume, at least some of the duties of company manager as well. the skylight has an annual operating budget of $3.7 million producing five mainstage shows a year, five cabaret shows, and two shows in a smaller, black box studio theater - over 150 performances a season. the skylight also owns and operates the broadway theater center, home to milwaukee chamber theatre, renaissancetheatreworks, present music, bel canto chorus, milwaukee children's choir, and a milwaukee law firm. the job of managing director for the skylight includes acting as landlord for the broadway theater center.
dillner's last home, the shreveport opera, has an annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million – less than 1/3 that of the skylight. shreveport opera typically produces three shows a year, one performance each, using rented costumes and sets.
of the five shows the skylight produces each year, two to three are typically musicals -- the producers, white christmas, chicago, floydcollins.dillner, by his own admission, knows very little about musical theatre. when dillner was hired as the skylight's managing director, he was not vetted as an artistic director. the search for the previous artistic director – bill theisen – was thorough and exhaustive. and yet the executive committee and board president feel confident enough with dillner's artistic ability to hand him the duties of artistic director seemingly overnight.
under normal circumstances, would dillner even be considered for the post of artistic director at the company?
Colin Cabot, the former managing director, donor and guiding light of the Skylight Opera Theatre, will come to Milwaukee from his New Hampshire home to try to calm the controversy that has engulfed the company since artistic director Bill Theisen was fired on June 16. Cabot will attend a crucial board meeting set for Wednesday (July 8) afternoon.
Cabot said he hopes to broker some sort of rapproachment among the conflicting sides, so that the company's 50th anniversary season will be a happy one. But he also said that he did not see how the company could proceed without someone in charge of the artistic side and without a company manager.
strini also reports that the skylight board is "divided among those who would oust managing [director] Eric Dillner and president Suzanne Hefty for firing Theisen and those who believe it was an economic necessity."
one might suggest those two points of view are not mutually exclusive.
the skylight opera theatre'swebsite lists one person under artistic staff: michael lorenz, orchestra contractor. maybe now lorenz – aka "ding"– will finally have some say in casting.
Since announcing that she would resign as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (R) has been blaming her decision on the “main stream media” and political operatives who accused her of “all sorts of frivolous ethics violations.” However, last year, Palin pointedly criticized Hillary Clinton during the presidential election for complaining about “excess criticism” and being put under “a sharper microscope”:
dillner & company responsible for more national press. this time, the new york times covers – via cut-and-paste reporting – the debacle at the skylight.
buy me a cup of coffee. or lunch or dinner for that matter.
click the will blog for coffee graphic located in the dark green middle column, enter the amount you want to donate, and select a payment method. i'll go to starbucks, sit at a table for two with an empty chair, and think of you while i sip a chai latte, or whatever it is you buy me (you are so nice!) i may even have a pretend conversation with you (you are so clever and witty! i'd forgotten!) that is, unless you buy me dinner. which means i'll be sitting at a table in mamma mexico by myself. thinking of you.
shop at the tuesdays amazon store. how can i share stuff that i like with you, my close friend?
here's how: tuesdays has it's own amazon store. the tuesdays store is chock full of stuff i think you should own. click on this fancy logo (there's one in the far right sidebar too.) categories range from books i've actually read (read 'em and weep) to all the music i forced you to listen to in my parents basement 30 years ago (gay boy record party.) when you buy something, i get a suitcase of money. when you click through to amazon.com from the tuesdays store and buy stuff, i get a monkey (i've always wanted a monkey.) if you buy enough stuff, amazon sends me the elephant man's bones.
niffer clarke, speaking on behalf of the skylight theatre guest artists, isn't satisfied with board president suzanne hefty and past president howard miller'sresponse:
Dear Ms. Hefty and Mr. Miller,
Thank you for replying to the Guest Artist Letter submitted to the Skylight Board. After reading it, however, I am troubled with apparent inconsistencies and left with questions. I am glad to hear that you take our concern very seriously; however, I cannot help but question the sincerity of this. Why have no other inquiries or phone calls elicited a response? I know that many patrons, local artists, even donors have petitioned you with similar questions and concerns, and their petitions have still gone unanswered. This is unconscionable.
That you acknowledge the mishandling of your decision is an understatement, at best. The restructuring, position eliminations and underlying reasons were not spelled out in ANY detail in advance, let alone sufficient detail. The public response still has not been "handled".
That you state your decision "will not be reversed" merely serves to make me suspect of your allegations to have an open forum regarding these decisions.
I understand the severity of Skylight's financial situation. And I understand how the staff and administration over the past three years have worked together to implement necessary cuts. Why then was the staff not included in the most recent decisions? Why were they not given the opportunity to engage in this dialogue and offer solutions that would have resulted in the same financial savings. As is most apparent in this aftermath, there existed other solutions which the staff was quite willing to make. I'm afraid you misunderstood -- WE didn't want to be included in the discussions. We are asking why wasn't the staff included in these discussions? Your determination to keep this a discussion limited to the Managing Director and the Executive Board unfortunately smacks of a lack of transparency. As it becomes clearer through the resignation of Skylight Board members, the discussions regarding the totality of this decision did not even include the Board. This only lends an appearance of deception, which I hope and trust was not your intent.
I am not convinced, after reading your explanation, that you fully understand the responsibilities of the Artistic Director. To believe that the Artistic Director's responsibilities can be "assumed" by someone who is presently the Managing Director, and whose artistic experience is limited and on an incomparably different scale than one demanded of an organization the size of the Skylight, is short-sighted. In my mind, you have failed to substantiate your "great confidence" in Mr. Dillner's artistic management abilities.
Lastly, I must take great offense at the usage of Bill Theisen's acceptance to direct four shows next year as an attempt to pacify and appease the opposition to your decision. That this response to the Guest Artists was made after Bill announced his acceptance can only raise eyebrows.
I cannot help but still feel let down. And the fact that your response to the public outcry has been scant and questionably timed has severely damaged your position and credibility. For the Skylight to succeed, as you maintain is your wish, I continue to petition you to reconsider your decision. Further, I urge you to consider what you can do to repair relations with Skylight's disappointed, disillusioned and unsettled patrons, supporters, donors and artists. Your actions at this point will be most telling. I implore you to do the right thing for the future of the Skylight, which will take great courage and a setting aside of personal ambition and enterprise.
a tuesdays reader takes umbrage with how the skylight theatre's executive committee, board president suzanne hefty, and managing director eric dillner treated former artistic director bill theisen while showing him the door:
I was in Human Resources for a number of years in Chicago at a Fortune 500 company. One of my roles was firing people.
We had a gentlemen who embezzled $200,000 from the company and we laid out his options, gave him time to think/respond and treated him with more respect and generosity – as a thief – than [Theisen was] treated with.
biking 30 of the 100 or so miles of milwaukee county's oak leaf bike trail today, i came across these two hanging out in oak creek parkway with mom nearby.
"[A good point guard] drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket, and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win."
"Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent among them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary.”
andrew sullivan, who followed the entire palin saga closer than almost anyone, on her resigning as governor of alaska:
In the end, I think, the one thing to say is that the Republican party is in such a total state of collapse and incoherence that it actually believed she could be a future president; and that John McCain was so reckless, so cynical and so cavalier that he was prepared to rest the national security of this country on her shoulders if he, in his seventies, were to become unable to fulfill his duties or die.
In some ways, this is a moment to reflect on McCain, and his irresponsibility, not Palin and her drama.
MIKE MURPHY gop political consultant: "Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback. My answer disappoints them: Build an ark."
PAT ROBERTSON "I am not at all persuaded that so-called homosexuals are homosexuals because of biological problems. There may be a very few, but there are so many that have been made homosexuals because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure who has abused them and they think there's something wrong with their sexuality."
ROBERT REICH "Never underestimate the Republicans' capacity for taking big political risks that turn out badly.
Remember Sarah Palin?"
BILLY JOE ARMSTRONG GREEN DAY lead singer: "Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record [21st Century Breakdown] because they wanted us to censor it.
There's nothing dirty about our record. They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."
Sen. JOHN MCCAIN "When you have a majority of Americans, seventy-something percent, saying we shouldn't torture, then I'm not sure it helps for the Vice President to go out and continue to espouse that position... [Cheney] believes that waterboarding doesn't fall under the Geneva Conventions and that it's not a form of torture. But you know, it goes back to the Spanish Inquisition."
JAMES VALCQ at the danny gokey parade: "Whenever crowds gather with signs to greet a singing sensation, I'm there. His limo zoomed by and I barely caught a glimpse. Waiting for Gokey was more like Waiting for Godot""
WANDA SYKES prior to the white house correspondence dinner: "They told me not so say the F word or the N word. I'm offended they even told me that. What do they think, I'm some ignorant ass? Like I'm going to go in there, 'What's up n*****?' Like what the f*** they think I'm going to do?"
"
DICK CHENEY former vice-president: "If I had to choose [between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell] in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh. My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican."
DENNIS C. BLAIR obama admin. director of national intelligence: "The information gained from these (enhanced interrogation techniques, approved by the bush administration) was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means.
The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."
BLOGGER TODD from i don't like you in that way: "Not to get too political here, but who gives a shit? Doesn't the world have more pressing issues than worrying about if Kenneth and Gary get married?
I'm from the South so I have an opinion on gay marriage, but guess what? It's my opinion, that doesn't mean it needs to be made into a law. If another dude marrying another dude makes that dude happy, then have at it, man. More vagina for me. And let's be clear, "more vagina for me" is pretty much the correct answer for everything."
SHIRLEY COX 84 year old iowan: "To be honest, I would rather not have [same-sex marriage] in Iowa. But the thing is, it’s really none of my business. Who am I to tell someone how to live? I live the way I want, and they should live the way they want. I’m surely not going to stomp and raise heck and campaign against it."
MARK TWAIN: "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as much as you please."
last sunday afternoon, as i stood among the thousands of people corralled into the closed-down southbound lane of 6th avenue between 45th and 47th at new york city's rally for marriage equality, i glanced around and realized i was experiencing an emotion i hadn't felt so strongly since i first walked into a gay bar back in the early 1980s. and i'm not talking about an overwhelming sense that my hairstyle is five years out of date.
..keeps the neurologist away. years ago, i took that old saying to heart and, while i haven't stuck to it religiously, i still eat an apple a day when i can.
at some moment of brilliance in my life (one of many, be assured) i decided it would be efficient to consume the entire apple, including the core, leaving nothing to throw away but the stem. plus, i'd read that apple seeds contain trace amounts of cyanide and i thought this would somehow inoculate me against any nasty poisoning snafu that might arise in the future. one never knows.
last night, less than 36 hours after returning to the united states, i was seated in the mezzanine of the palace theater watching liza minnelli make her triumphant return to broadway. and – this makes me extra gay – i cried. twice.
look. judy garland has special meaning to those of us in the "community." she's our mother. and at the same time, she's us. she's dorothy, she's tragic, she's strong, she's weak, she's tortured, she runs away from home only to find there's no place like it, she's been over the rainbow and back, and, well, there are plenty of other reasons. some super top-secret reasons that we just can't divulge to the straights. so stop asking. sorry.
on my bike ride home tonight, on a quiet street near the milwaukee art museum, i nearly ran over a ginormous bullfrog. bigger than any frog i've ever seen, anywhere. ever. including zoos, and canada.
the only frog i've ever seen that was this big was the one in my mom's rock garden 35 years ago and he was made out of some kind of ceramic material and had been painted by my sister-in-law at a magical place in burlington, wisconsin called "off the wall." painting ceramic frogs was big in the 1970's.
life offers up the most ludicrous, ridiculous situations sometimes.
no. often.
i’m supposed to be in milwaukee right now, directing “a year with frog and toad” for a great theater company called first stage milwaukee. at the “meet and greet” today i had very little to say, except that one of the things i love most about the original “frog and toad” stories by arnold lobel is how beautifully simple they are.
in the midst of that simplicity comes the difficulty of life.
instead of listening to a wonderful group of actors, young and old, learn and sing the music from the show (which is what i was doing an hour ago) i’m flying home to new york to see my partner rob, and spend a final evening with our dog reggie.
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