Dillner Out at the Skylight
Managing director Eric Dillner, the center of controversy since artistic director Bill Theisen was fired June 16, is now out as managing director. Dillner’s departure is a victory for the many Skylight performers who had rallied around Theisen and quit their roles.
Kristin Godfrey, the company’s marketing director, said that all performers who had been fired by Dillner or quit their roles would be restored. Theisen will return to direct all five shows he was originally scheduled to lead, including “The Long and the Short of It.” That is the Paula Dewey Cabot/Colin Cabot original set for the Studio Theater between the winter holidays. The Cabots had pulled out of it.
Cabot, the former managing director whose family name is on the company’s main stage theater, played a large role in Dillner’s demise and the restoration of Theisen and his performers. Cabot now lives in New Hampshire and runs a specialty lumber business there, but he has agreed to return temporarily to run the opera company. Joan Lounsbery, another former managing director, will come out of retirement to serve the Skylight in her old capacity starting in September. In an email exchange last month, Lounsbery said that if asked she would consider coming back to Milwaukee from California to run the Skylight for six to eight months.
In addition to the company’s ongoing financial difficulty, Cabot will have to deal with the problem of double-casting in most of “Barber.” Dillner had signed replacements to most of the roles; those replacements must be made to give way.
Here’s the release, received from Skylight Marketing Director Kristin Godfrey:
Managing Director Eric Dillner Resigns
Milwaukee, WI, (August 5, 2009) – Interim Board President Terry Kurtenbach today regretfully announced the resignation of Skylight Opera Theatre Managing Director Eric Dillner. Dillner said, “I had to make many difficult decisions to streamline the company and it is now best for me to step aside and let someone else carry it forward.”
“The decisions to lay off several valued employees, eliminate positions through attrition, reduce artist fees and ask staff to take furloughs, though unpopular, were necessary in order to address the Skylight’s budget gaps and help secure its viability in the future,” said Kurtenbach. “Eric is a strong manager willing to make difficult decision with professionalism, honesty and integrity. The Board of Directors and I appreciate Eric’s service to the Skylight during the challenging times brought on by the national economic crisis. We thank him for his commitment to the Skylight and wish him the best.”
Eric Dillner, a professional artist in his own right, came to the Skylight from the Shreveport Opera, where he successfully weathered 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina during his seven-year tenure. He has devoted the last decade to building companies, audiences and artists’ careers. He will continue consulting with the Skylight, but will engage in other pursuits to build and develop artists, nonprofit companies and build future audiences. He plans also to further develop topic-based outreach programs such as “Herman the Horse: a Healthy Tail” and “Why Dinosaurs Don’t Smoke”.
“I wish the Skylight the best in all its future endeavors and leave it in the hands of a capable staff, and fiscally responsible and caring Board of Directors. It is an amicable departure.” Dillner added, “I am thankful for the support I have received here in Milwaukee and from around the globe.”
The Board of Directors plans to explore a full range of options as it considers Dillner’s successor. Two Skylight alumni, Joan Lounsbery and Colin Cabot, have graciously offered to help manage the company in the interim until a replacement can be identified.
The Skylight will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary Season in 2009-2010. The season will open on September 18th with a beloved opera The Barber of Seville, sung in English, as is all work at Skylight Opera Theatre. The season includes an exciting line-up of shows featuring the full range of music theatre for which the Skylight is known. The season, produced at the Broadway Theatre Center, will also include Plaid Tidings, The Marriage of Figaro, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, and RENT. Enthusiasm for this season continues to be high.
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WILL HE SUE SKYLIGHT?
ONE MORE QUESTION…HIS DEPARTURE DEFUSES THE CRISIS, BUT IT STILL DOESN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION OF THE ROLE OF THE BOARD IN ALL OF THIS
Good questions, Judith. I don’t care for how this is being played out. Again, they are being quite vague with such a huge decision.
Thanks for the update, Tom. It is great to have you onboard here at TCD. Hopefully, Colin Cabot will take the helm and bring back the glory of the Skylight.
I think with all the old crew back at the Skylight, we will win the board over with love. We can show them that we are not a bunch of drama queens, but principled, earnest workers who truly care for the product and the theatre, and are willing to go a long way to show that love. I for one a, going to do whatever I can to help earn money, if it’s sing free concerts to stuffing envelopes to working the box office (which I actually did for a summer, so I have experience). Season of Love, Baby!
I think with all the old crew back at the Skylight, we will win the board over with love. We can show them that we are not a bunch of drama queens, but principled, earnest workers who truly care for the product and the theatre, and are willing to go a long way to show that love. I, for one, am going to do whatever I can to help earn money, if it’s sing free concerts to stuffing envelopes to working the box office (which I actually did for a summer, so I have experience). Season of Love, Baby!
Thank you, Tom. I am so happy for all of us in Milwaukee!
A large number of people are working and have been working on the Skylight situation – artists, Board members, donors, friends of Skylight past and present, management, media, tech crew, etc. (In alphabetic order, as Woody Allen would do it.) The Skylight has to put a successful season on the stage, they have to correct the financial situation during a serious recession, and they have to find – like the newspaper industry and so many other industries, – a new sustainable company structure. If they can pull that off, it will be a victory for everyone. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the solution – more work ahead.
As one observing from the audience, so to speak, I’ve been reluctant to offer opinions about the turmoil at the Skylight; I figured that those familiar with the workings of things behind the scenes could speak from a position of knowledge. But I’ve heard a lot of speculation, and I feel compelled to give Eric Dillner at least some benefit of the doubt. Respected figures including Colin Cabot and Jonathan West point out that Eric recognized the very real financial problems facing the company, and he sought to address them. It’s unfair to impute nefarious motives and impugn his character with no real evidence, and it’s hypocritical to seize on every little phrase he utters or writes and say “Aha!” and then complain that he’s done the same with certain Facebook posts.
When Eric addressed the assembly at Catalano Square on July 24, he spoke of his love for the Skylight. I have no reason to doubt his words. I am inclined to put the best construction on his resignation and conclude that that love contributed to his decision; that the best thing he could do at this point, even if he felt he had been in the right, was to step aside.
I urge my passionate, vocal artist friends not to gloat or speak ill of the man. We have work to do; let’s move forward.