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Update on Staff Positions, the Playwrights Festival

Art isn't easy. So goes a Stephen Sondheim lyric from Sunday in the Park with George. It is a truism, not only in regard to an artist's individual creative process, but also the administration of a community theater company.

The Curtain Players Board of Directors at its September meeting made its second difficult decision of this new season. We made a choice to operate without an artistic director. (The first difficult vote was to cancel two weekends of our three-weekend playwrights festival. An update on that matter follows.)

The move to eliminate the artistic director staff position is a budgetary one. The salary for this part-time post, is modest, yes, but reallocating this amount of money to other line items strengthens the overall fiscal year 2010 operating budget without sacrificing programming or needed maintenance of our Harlem Road playhouse.

JB Jasiunas for two years has served as the Curtain Players artistic director — before Jasiunas, it was Michael Schacherbauer — with the primary responsibility for quality control when it comes to our six productions and playwrights festival. Jasiunas's theatrical education and experience, and his organizational skills, have been an asset to Curtain Players. Above and beyond his artistic director responsibilities, Jasiunas has directed for Curtain (most recently, Camelot), and he will remain a friend to and active participant in this company. We applaud Jasiunas for his commitment and contribution to this organization and to the actors, directors and technical crews he shepherded to successful runs on the Curtain Players stage.

Curtain Players is a rarity, among very few community theaters to have paid staff members. This year, we created a part-time technical director position. Drew Washburn will continue in that post. The board has determined a need for someone to address short- and long-term concerns regarding the lights, sound equipment and other hardware that enhance Curtain's storytelling and our patrons' theatre-going experience.

Proceeding without an artistic director after so many years is a situation the board takes seriously. The 11 board members will share reviews of rehearsals and handle director relations. Curtain Players will avail itself of support programs through the Ohio Community Theatre Association. Although this is a difficult measure to take, we are confident Curtain Players will continue to provide quality entertainment this season as it has for 46 years previously.

And to update you on the playwrights festival: Mike Day, currently the board member serving as production manager, will be executive producer for the 2010 event. The Curtain Players Board of Directors is committed to presenting this popular annual affair in July. As Day builds his production staff, there will be more details — such as how to submit scripts, audition dates for actors — to announce. As Curtain Players continues to strengthen our "community in theatre," I encourage you to contact Mike if you want to participate.

Art isn't easy, and arts and culture organizations do grow and change. We have to believe that decisions made, even the difficult ones, will serve Curtain Players well.