Money Trouble at Wisdom Bridge
Payroll checks for some of the actors employed in Wisdom Bridge Theatre’s most recent production, Kabuki Medea, bounced in the weeks before the show closed on December 12. Tad Currie, regional director of the Actors’ Equity, indicated that when the problem first arose, the cast member designated as union representative quickly contacted Equity officials. When the union subsequently contacted producing director Jeffrey Ortmann about the problem, Ortmann reportedly said the checks bounced because Wisdom Bridge didn’t receive funds it had expected from a television taping of Kabuki Medea that ultimately fell through. Currie also said the money due the performers had since been paid in full and without using any of the bond Actors’ Equity requires theater companies to post before a production goes into rehearsal.
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Perhaps another reason Wisdom Bridge couldn’t cover the running costs of Kabuki Medea was that it was putting money into the commercial transfer of its first play of the season, Tour de Farce. The show received positive notices and did good business in its brief run at Wisdom Bridge, which presumably convinced Ortmann and the company’s board of directors that money could be made by moving it to the Apollo Theater. Coproducer Michael Leavitt said he and Wisdom Bridge equally shared the costs of mounting the production at the Apollo, where the show lasted barely more than a month and was by all accounts a financial disaster despite heavy advertising and a ticket price as low as $10.
What Remains of Remains?
Remains Theatre has let go about half of its administrative staff, including managing director R.P. Sekon, marketing director Chris Petersen (who will remain a member of the ensemble), and the office manager. Still aboard are artistic director Neel Keller and a director of development, and the company plans to hire a full-time administrative assistant. David Harvey, a member of the Remains board of directors, says the decision to reduce administrative overhead came in the wake of an internal review of the company conducted by the staff last fall. “It was the staff members themselves,” says Harvey, “who concluded it would be in Remains’s best interests if many of them sought employment elsewhere in light of the fact that we might not have our own home for a while.” Says Petersen, “We saw the loss of the facility at 1800 N. Clybourn as a sign that we needed to…[concentrate] less on running an operation and more on producing plays.” Remains is downsizing its budget for the current fiscal year to around $600,000 from about $1 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Charles Eshelman.
