The Garden Theatre eliminated key personnel positions Wednesday afternoon, including its education director, and said it would turn to outside producers to start its next season as a statement from the Winter Garden theater said the nonprofit would “temporarily shift our operational focus to the organizational health of the Theatre.”
Employees Desiree Montes, director of marketing, and Nick Bazo, director of education, confirmed they were let go by the theater. In addition, artistic directing consultant Roberta Emerson said her contract had been terminated.
“We’re all kind of in disbelief,” Emerson said.
Keith Smith, vice chair of the theater’s board of directors, said the staff had been pared down to “necessary roles required right now for the organization in the short term.” He would not comment on the number of staff members who lost their jobs.
Since the resignation of artistic director Joseph C. Walsh in June, theater staff members have been at odds with the board of directors, a feud that has played out publicly across social media. Walsh blamed the toll on his physical and mental health for leaving the organization, where he worked five months without the support of a managing director.
In its statement, the theater said it would spend the next months “conducting an in-depth review of our organizational structure and operations” that would look at staffing needs and leadership practices. In addition, the statement said the board would consult with experts on effective management for nonprofits.
Wednesday’s departures from the theater also mark the end of the high-profile William Daniel Mills Apprenticeship Program there. The innovative educational program, which debuted at the Garden in 2021, was designed to provide training and networking for the next generation of theater artists. Harold Mills, who funded the program with his wife, Rosy, in memory of their son, said he asked the theater to return the Mills family’s donation, and Smith confirmed that the theater would honor the request.
“We were extremely proud of the Daniel Mills Apprenticeship Program and were proud to be part of it,” said Smith, adding the theater hoped to establish a new apprenticeship program in the future.
Smith also stressed that the theater was “absolutely not taking educational programs out of the offerings at the Garden Theatre,” calling education “a critical component of what we do,” but said there were no education programs planned for the next few months.
The first two shows in the theater’s upcoming season, which would have been starting this month, had previously been canceled. Smith said plans to start the season with a family-friendly show titled “Honk” in November were on track, but the theater was reaching out to other producers to stage the show.
Although outside producers, such as Orlando-based Beth Marshall Presents, have long been part of the Garden’s history, the latest move is a step back from the hopes of officials in the theater’s early days.
“In my tenure we were working toward that goal of being a regional professional theater,” said Alauna Friskics, the founding executive director of the theater, which staged its first season in 2008. “We had lots of conversations about it.”
The theater relied entirely on outside producers bringing in their own productions for the first two seasons, before producing its own show — the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” — for the first time in 2010.
The Garden’s self-produced shows in the early days were performed mostly by volunteers with a few professional actors. Over time, the theater added stipends for volunteer performers and began casting more and more professional actors.
While schedules still contained a mix of plays produced by the Garden and those from other companies, for the 2018-19 season the theater began producing its season-subscription shows itself with all actors being paid.
Friskics, who left the Garden in 2017 and is now executive director of Orlando Fringe, said the theater’s “time out” could be a good thing.
“As theaters grow, they have to continue to assess their operations and how they evolve within the community to make themselves who they are in the present day,” she said. “It makes me hopeful for the future, as long as conversations are open and inclusive and move forward with good intentions.”
The departures of Walsh and Emerson leave the theater without top artistic personnel. Smith said the hope was for the theater to self-produce future shows, possibly as early as January, but that would depend on how long the planned “holistic review” took — and what it found.
Mills said he hopes to move the apprentice program, which already had held orientation for 30 teens and young adults, to another organization. He said he had donated $60,000 to fund the program at the Garden — and expressed dismay at Wednesday’s events.
“I’m just profoundly shocked this is the resolution they came up with,” he said of the board of directors. “There’s no reason why they should be at this place except their own egos. It’s really sad.”
The theater’s statement said the “unprecedented” organizational review would set the Garden on course for the future.
“We are confident that time and introspection will bring understanding, healing and clarity to what sadly has become a hurtful and confusing situation potentially bringing irreparable harm to the Theatre and the City of Winter Garden,” it said.
Emerson also spoke of sadness over her departure.
“My overwhelming feeling right now is guilt that I couldn’t figure out a way to help,” she said.
Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theater and arts news and reviews? Go to orlandosentinel.com/arts.
