Thursday, July 16, 2009
Onstage / Performing Arts / Arts BoarsHead Theater veterans protest Kristine Thatcher's firing
Posted by Albert Williams on 07.16.09 at 04:31 PM
According to City Pulse, an alternative newspaper in Lansing, Michigan, two veterans of Lansing's BoarsHead Theater have canceled plans to perform there next season in protest against BoarsHead's firing of artistic director Kristine Thatcher. Actors John Peakes and Carmen Decker had been expected to appear in Beau Jest, a comedy by James Sherman.
As previously noted here, Thatcher—well known in Chicago as an actor and playwright—learned on May 28 that the BoarsHead board would not renew her contract, which expires August 31. Reportedly, the theater decided it could not afford two top-level staffers, and Thatcher was considered more expendable than executive director John Dale Smith.
City Pulse quoted Peakes, a former BoarsHead artistic director himself, saying, "I think they've done absolute violation to the theater by firing Kristine, who was the muscle. I just don't think it's going in the right direction; I don't particularly want to be up there in that environment."
A sidelight: Thatcher and Sherman are both members of the Victory Gardens Theater playwrights ensemble, and the play currently running at Boarshead, Bluff, starring John Astin, is the work of another playwrights ensemble member: Jeffrey Sweet.
Comments (3)
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I am delighted to report that BLUFF, the last show Kristine is producing (unless the board at Boarshead come to their senses) has opened to smashing reviews, confirming yet again that she knows how to put together a good team. I'm heading out to see her and the show its last weekend -- July 24, 25 & 26. If anybody is game to join me, maybe we can take her out to a swell dinner one of those nights and tell her we love her.
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SO GLAD that BLUFF is a hit, and you are going out there, Jeff! Congratulations. Wish to god I could be there too, in support of Kristine. I'll be sending love from afar. I also wish that the actors who feel they cannot work at BoarsHead, and the subscribers who have bailed, due to the boards actions, would have some impact. But I fear they won't. And that makes me very sad for both BHT and it's audience. However: VIVA KRISTINE THATCHER!! Here's to the next phase in her brilliant career!
