 Jacque Drew |
ESSAY Theater on the Bottom Line The latest upheaval at Tygres Heart should concern us all. BY STEFFEN SILVIS 243-2122 EXT. 343 |
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Within a year, Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company has experienced two palace revolutions. The latest, by far the worse, has seen the near-collapse of the board of directors and the loss of the artistic-director team. As with any upheaval, each side has its own version of the events. According to former artistic directors Doug Miller and Jacque Drew, Tygres Heart board chair Nancy Kline engineered a series of power plays to take complete control of the company. Miller and Drew had planned a gradual move toward making Tygres Heart a professional company, a move that Kline opposed. But Kline tells another story. "The creation of a professional company was not the issue," she told WW. "We were in no financial state to even discuss it. Basically, we were operating on a deficit, and no one wanted to deal with the debt." As with most theater companies and art institutions, Tygres Heart struggled with debt. "Had we continued on, we would have been hit with a $95,000 deficit," Kline said. (Miller responds: "I've never known anyone who could pull so many numbers from the air. The company has long been at a $30,000-$35,000 level of debt.") She summed up the possible course of action like this: "We had three options. We could cut expenses, tie it all up neatly and quit, or continue on into bankruptcy. I threatened to resign if the third choice was chosen." According to Drew, however, no threat was necessary; the board decided on its own to vote on whether Kline should step down as chairwoman. Kline rewon her position in a narrow victory, and Miller and Drew felt that there was no alternative but to resign. They did not go alone: Four long-standing board members, including Charlie Swindells and Regina Hauser, also chose to leave. Kline said, "The board was almost evenly split between those with management and financial backgrounds who could understand the situation and those who lacked such experience." Hauser, a legal professional, said: "I don't know how to respond to that. It's almost comical." For the board members who resigned, there was a shared enthusiasm for Miller and Drew's vision. "I liked their approach," said Swindells. But Kline had other considerations. "It's a fine balancing act," she said. "What's won by going broke?" The difference in the language used by these opponents is striking--it truly becomes an argument between art and commerce. Should this matter concern Portland audiences? Absolutely. Miller and Drew were a breath of fresh air. They are serious artists who articulated the need for a disciplined theater company, one with rigorous and prolonged training for its artists. "Theater is driven by its artistic mission, not economics," said Drew. Though one would welcome Kline's talents at the corner bank, one must question whether a financial controller can ever replace an artistic director. That Kline has already welcomed former artistic director Jan Powell to propose possible productions signals a willingness to countenance mediocrity. In other words, rather than art, it's business as usual.
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