Here's how former employees rate Oregon Shakes as a place to work as posted on glassdoor.com: "Oregon Shakespeare Festival has an overall rating of 1.8 out of 5, based on over 39 reviews left anonymously by employees. 8% of employees would recommend working at Oregon Shakespeare Festival to a friend and 4% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -48% over the last 12 months. Employees also rated Oregon Shakespeare Festival 1.5 out of 5 for work life balance, 1.9 for culture and values and 2.4 for career opportunities.
Some of their comments:
1 Burn out galore, no communication, hollow requests for ideas
The salary ranges are beyond ridiculous. Some people who have worked here for decades make below where they should be, while members of the senior leadership team make near or over $200K.
2 Was valued, until I wasn't.
The administration is more focused on politics than theatre or storytelling. They are systematically tearing down institutional history in favor of creating a new narrative. However, we need to understand history if we are going to build a new future.
3 The Worst Place I Have Ever Worked
From the sexual harassment to bullying to going against the "vision" to fiscal mismanagement to feeding people to the board to funneling money to inflate egos... it's all true. OSF needs to be reborn with competent people at the top. … I hope everyone comes to know the truth about what has been going on at OSF because everything that is being sold to the media is also a lie.
4 Used to love it here, now can't wait to leave.
The organization has had a pretty hard time since the start of the pandemic, as have most arts orgs. But OSF hasn't bounced back the way other orgs have. Leadership has burned their bridges with the community and alienated most of its donors through a series of ridiculously bad calls:
Gutting the industry-leading education program.
Eliminating the membership program and revoking most of the benefits of being a donor while expecting people to continue giving out of the goodness of their hearts.
Kicking an 80+ year old volunteer organization out of its role running the gift shop (so now no gift shop generating revenue and hundreds of angry former volunteers and donors).
Cutting the number of shows in half and expecting ticket sales to not drop catastrophically.
Sinking millions into vanity digital projects with no ROI, some of which look like they were made by highs school students.
Social media and PR contractors who work to burnish the reputation of one person instead of the company.
Hiring contractors from among a small, favored list, with outrageous pay and no controls on costs or firm list of deliverables.
Ignoring or firing long-term professionals because their professional opinion doesn't align with the aspirational goals of management.
Outright lying to the board of directors on financial forecasts to make them think vanity projects can bring in enough revenue to support themselves.
Firing or driving out competent leaders and hiring replacements without the skill and experience to do the job and paying them more to do less.
Ego, ego, and more ego.
It's sad to see a once-great organization broken like this. COVID certainly did its part to ruin the place. Inept executive leadership with a one-size-fits-all big city mentality it tried to force onto a small town didn't help. Artistic leadership that goes around saying things like "these white people think the purpose of theater is to be entertained" and "we used to be Shakespeare summer camp for rich old white ladies" and having programmed the three most depressing seasons of theater in the organization's history in a time when the whole world was just looking for a little joy drove the nail into the coffin.
Advice to Management
Find a strong business-minded Executive Director who will remember that the purpose of the organization is to produce shows people want to see, at a sustainable price.
Stop the disastrous and costly experiments with VR and go back to the roots of producing quality live theater (and film it for broader distribution).
Build a functioning finance department that can pay bills on time.
5 To quote Shakespeare: "Hell is empty and all the devils are here"
Artistic and current leadership can be great artists, but are convinced they can do the administrative and business side of operations and, as evidenced by all of my former colleagues reviews here, obviously cannot. They demand respect but refuse to respect anyone else’s expertise in their fields or professions. The amount of time and energy spent trying to do our jobs while having to carefully tiptoe around wild narcissism and egos was unmatched and exhausting. Leadership has no understanding of people’s jobs outside of their Artistic department, and thus continuously led to poor staffing decisions including nonsensical layoffs, stolen ideas, and interdepartmental strain. Gaslighting and retaliation against speaking up was a huge issue, and one I personally was affected by along with many of my colleagues. Training in systems is nearly non-existent. People let go without warning and their colleagues forced to take up work they are not trained in was very common. Always understaffed and very high turnover. While I was very optimistic of the DEI work, it eventually means nothing when leadership, many of them BIPOC themselves, turn out to be toxic and abusive. So many instances of talk the talk, but not walk the walk. I could go on, but honestly they have already taken so much of my labor in ways I did not consent, that I am simply too tired to remember everything.
Advice to Management
Leave. Accept your implicit role in this organization’s last breath. Yes, there were already systematic issues, yes it was already in a downward trajectory before the COVID shutdown, but the horrific mismanagement of funds and staff over the last few years should be acknowledged and accountability taken – don’t you remember we had a whole series of DEI trainings on accountability? Or was that only to waste staff’s time? Unfortunately, Leadership and Artistic only speak hollow words and never once walked the path of OSF’s stated Mission and Values. Sad, as at least the rest of us tried. As for everyone outside the organization reading this: take any press release or media news relating to OSF with a grain of salt. Look at it with a critical eye. Because as staff and former staff who loved this organization and the work we were trying to do, we are tired of the lies.
Listen to and protect whistleblowers and people who bring credible claims of harassment and discrimination.
Invest in the Education program, which used to be one of OSF's Crown Jewels but has been denigrated by artistic leadership for the last several years even though it was a major source of pride (as well as new audiences and new donors) for decades. Just because you’ve spoken to people who attended once in high school and never came back doesn't mean that thousands of others haven't made a lifelong connection to the arts through that program - expand it instead of killing it.
Run leaner productions with fewer frills and less expensive sets to cut costs.
Stop wasting millions of dollars on expensive contractors and endless strategic planning.
Remember that you are a theater. Your job is to produce shows people want to see, then sell them tickets to see it.
6 A theatrical “omniverse” of toxic “paradigms” and abuse. The most dysfunctional org in American Theatre.
While I was there, there seemed to be a fear around reporting less than ideal working conditions to leadership especially if it was dissonant against the “vision” or anyone that was favored by the AD or ED. The fiscal mismanagement has existed for years now, and due to lack of leadership or backbone from the last ED, we continued to hemorrhage cash on superfluous staffing, digital and VR programming and other personal favors that have yielded little monetary returns which this org needs desperately. Many of these ideas came from the AD who had a strenuous relationship with the ED and ultimately fed him to the board. He didn’t “resign”. He was fired. Full stop. It’s all just legalese for OSF to avoid another lawsuit. And finally, if you’re a person of color, please look for employment elsewhere. Despite the leadership team being primarily people of color, almost all off them are toxic. I was foolish to think this place would be any different. If you don’t fit the mold, you’re going to have a hard time fitting in here.
Advice to Management
It’s hard for me to say this, but the organization is beyond saving in its current iteration. It needs to be gutted. It’s is rotting from the inside and out and it needs leaders that are in it solely for the health of the institution, not industry recognition.
6 Not recommended
Need all new leadership. Start over. Bring back the theater we all knew and loved. It worked! Seats were sold out. The community was proud. People planned their trips around OSF. Families had reunions every year there. It was a summer celebration of live theater.
Berthold Brecht, George Bernard Shaw and countless others found fresh and interesting ways to get their contemporaries discussing what they perceived to be the problems ailing society. Like other pusillanimous spirits, the OSF fiends gleefully obey an ideology that is out to destroy venerable institutions that used to bring joy, knowledge, insights and laughter to the world instead of creating something new and enriching. Thank you for reminding us once more to beware the brethren of the red guards wherever they raise their ugly heads!
Apr 17, 2023·edited Apr 17, 2023Liked by Mary McDonald-Lewis
Okay, Mary, you're a poet and I am a numbers nerd from hell. But a poet or three has told me that I have a great untutored eye for modern art, and I have occasionally said that the biggest difference between humans and animals is that humans create art on purpose. Art is everywhere you look, and I love it. I say all this in hopes that you and others here will put up with what I have to say. It's artless, but I want people to pay attention.
I am a retired financial analyst with deep experience in financial statement analysis, so I have focused on Oregon Shakespeare Festival's IRS disclosures (Form 990), and the most recent audit performed by McDonald Jacobs, an accountancy in Portland. OSF's fiscal 2021 ended on Oct. 31, and the audit showed a cash balance of $17.4 million.
The most OSF has ever lost in any year, near as I can tell, is $4.5 million -- in FY21 -- but that loss was counterbalanced by a big influx of cash from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a covid-generated program administered by the Small Business Administration. Even though OSF lost $4.5 million from operations, its cash on hand went from $12.2 million to $17.4 million in the same FY.
Why does that matter? Because it's been only 17-1/2 months since their FY21 ended, but OSF is threatening to cancel their season unless they get $1.5 million by June, and they've established a fundraising goal of $2.5 million by the end of the summer. In the words of the immortal Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: "Where's the Money?"
OSF is seeking a $5.1 million bailout from the taxpayers of Oregon. My question, again, is "Where's the Money?" How did they ever run through $17.4 million in 17-1/2 months when they haven't even come remotely close to doing that in the decade or so worth of IRS Form 990s that I looked at?
I started attending OSF back in the 80s, taking my then teen-age son to see "Midsummer Night's Dream" and a delightful Sheridan Restoration comedy. My husband and I have since attended OSF every year for decades, except for the pandemic closures, usually immersing ourselves in 5-6 plays and staying in B&Bs where we can talk theatre with other like-minded friends. Thank you for crystallizing in words the conflicted feelings we've had about the offerings from the past several years. We fall into that category you describe ... progressive mindset with a keen, open-minded interest in history. Some plays, such as "The African Company Presents Richard III" are powerful, and can present history in a way that is illuminating without co-opting a largely white audience into singing about how much we suck. There have been many contemporary social-justice plays we've enjoyed, but it does feel unbalanced in recent years. I have heard others express this same sentiment.
Are you all racing to purchase your tickets to the newly announced 'Cyberland' film extravaganza? Featured are the AD's (OSF funded) vanity film projects that never got any traction despite her fully funded escapades to Sundance, etc: https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2023-digital/cyberland
Sigh, just 4 years ago OSF was the largest repertory theater company in the country. The annual 11 production repertoire featured critically acclaimed new plays and always - Shakespeare.
This must be the same doc - at the top it says "NOV 1, 2020 and ending OCT 31, 2021" If you have the $17M balance you have it! So sorry if I am misdescribing! The next newest Audit we heard just today "has not yet been completed" but it should be soon because last years was released in March.
Apr 18, 2023·edited Apr 19, 2023Liked by Mary McDonald-Lewis
I am just a 'Some Girl' artist who has also analyzed all the available OSF financials thru 2021 and SG, you get the prize! The 2021 Audit shows a balance of $17,403,992 (as well as an endowment of $38,664,051, but that is a topic for another tale). Where this money has gone will be revealed any day as the 2022 audit is coming! The Ashland community has been awash in details yet cowed by venomous and oh-so public accusation. The day of reckoning and accountability for those responsible for this tragedy is close.
Related to fiscal history, I was frustrated hearing excuses from current OSF leadership describing “years of structural deficits". So I did an analysis of the income-expenditures revenue stream using data from the 2010-2018 Annual Reports. Six of those years ended in deficit spending. (2018 being a bad smoke/many canceled performances season). Three of the years showed a profit. Total losses in 9 years equaled $9,917,301 and total profit was $7,274,015.
So, 9 years, 99 productions and a total expenditure of $307M yielded a loss of $2,642,286. I am not advocating for deficit spending. Nor am I denying that the prior AD pretty much had the run of the candy store. But a $2.6M loss over 9 years it not what it is made out to be by those who use it to defend the current administration, A.D. and Board alike. What they would give for a return to $40M annual budgets. Not on this watch!
Apr 19, 2023·edited Apr 19, 2023Liked by Mary McDonald-Lewis
Yes. If you want to see them Google 'OSF Annual Reports' and they are listed by year. They are part donor acknowledgement, part marketing, and part celebration of successes - listed with data regarding attendance compared to capacity for each production, etc. Much easier to read/interpret. One significant point of interest on the 990's is the listing of salaries for the top positions of leadership. You will see that the OSF AD is being VERY VERY well compensated and that was 2 years ago. It is my understanding that her salary has since increased significantly. Rather than a reduction, in keeping with the fiscal crisis, her salary was raised as she was given the additional title of Interim Executive Director when the board euphemistically "accepted the resignations" of the two other leading salaried employees, including the Director of Development, both announced in January.
So sorry, I hate oblique acronyms! Artistic Director is in many theaters (but not all) and OSF the primary decision maker regarding a theater's content/productions, tone setter- as in messaging/marketing, hiring of actors etc..
I have a lot of conflicted thoughts about Shakespeare, the Ashland Shakespeare Theater and the free
Shakespeare in the park, that at one point in time put Shakespeare all over Portland in Parks and cemeteries for free. To begin with there is the fascinating and as it turns out controversial issue of who actually wrote the plays. See www dot sirbacon dot org. I remember scouring the bookstores in Ashland for discussion of the authorship question; none of the bookstores had hardly anything. Francis Bacon himself wrote the plays to transform reality, thus putting him in line with the "woke culture" of today. Bacon was also an early proponent and founder of secret societies including the Rosicrucians and the Free Masons. His was the world of all powerful "philosopher kings" which ironically with the rise of antifa and the cultural revolutionaries, puts him right in the mix. That said, I agree that the cultural institutions have now taken on denouncing, belittling and dumbing down, the audiences that pay good money to see "plays". Another take-away from this cultural hellscape / dystopia is that "critical race theory" is adamantly opposed to "critical thinking" because Critical Thinking can empower individuals while "crt" locks people into a passive subservient mode. Just what the elites ordered! (hence the continued funding of this shit show.)
I remember trying to figure out how to establish an account, but I don't remember feeling a concern other than wanting to be truthful. Maybe that's because I've become socialized to accept personal intrusion. I hope not.
For those interested in diving into the most recent 2021 OSF 990 - be sure to look for the $42,9k compensation to the AD's husband for "CONTRACTED SERVICES". It is my understanding that this compensation continued into the following year - yet to be exposed in the pending '2022 audit.
Here's how former employees rate Oregon Shakes as a place to work as posted on glassdoor.com: "Oregon Shakespeare Festival has an overall rating of 1.8 out of 5, based on over 39 reviews left anonymously by employees. 8% of employees would recommend working at Oregon Shakespeare Festival to a friend and 4% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -48% over the last 12 months. Employees also rated Oregon Shakespeare Festival 1.5 out of 5 for work life balance, 1.9 for culture and values and 2.4 for career opportunities.
Some of their comments:
1 Burn out galore, no communication, hollow requests for ideas
The salary ranges are beyond ridiculous. Some people who have worked here for decades make below where they should be, while members of the senior leadership team make near or over $200K.
2 Was valued, until I wasn't.
The administration is more focused on politics than theatre or storytelling. They are systematically tearing down institutional history in favor of creating a new narrative. However, we need to understand history if we are going to build a new future.
3 The Worst Place I Have Ever Worked
From the sexual harassment to bullying to going against the "vision" to fiscal mismanagement to feeding people to the board to funneling money to inflate egos... it's all true. OSF needs to be reborn with competent people at the top. … I hope everyone comes to know the truth about what has been going on at OSF because everything that is being sold to the media is also a lie.
4 Used to love it here, now can't wait to leave.
The organization has had a pretty hard time since the start of the pandemic, as have most arts orgs. But OSF hasn't bounced back the way other orgs have. Leadership has burned their bridges with the community and alienated most of its donors through a series of ridiculously bad calls:
Gutting the industry-leading education program.
Eliminating the membership program and revoking most of the benefits of being a donor while expecting people to continue giving out of the goodness of their hearts.
Kicking an 80+ year old volunteer organization out of its role running the gift shop (so now no gift shop generating revenue and hundreds of angry former volunteers and donors).
Cutting the number of shows in half and expecting ticket sales to not drop catastrophically.
Sinking millions into vanity digital projects with no ROI, some of which look like they were made by highs school students.
Social media and PR contractors who work to burnish the reputation of one person instead of the company.
Hiring contractors from among a small, favored list, with outrageous pay and no controls on costs or firm list of deliverables.
Ignoring or firing long-term professionals because their professional opinion doesn't align with the aspirational goals of management.
Outright lying to the board of directors on financial forecasts to make them think vanity projects can bring in enough revenue to support themselves.
Firing or driving out competent leaders and hiring replacements without the skill and experience to do the job and paying them more to do less.
Ego, ego, and more ego.
It's sad to see a once-great organization broken like this. COVID certainly did its part to ruin the place. Inept executive leadership with a one-size-fits-all big city mentality it tried to force onto a small town didn't help. Artistic leadership that goes around saying things like "these white people think the purpose of theater is to be entertained" and "we used to be Shakespeare summer camp for rich old white ladies" and having programmed the three most depressing seasons of theater in the organization's history in a time when the whole world was just looking for a little joy drove the nail into the coffin.
Advice to Management
Find a strong business-minded Executive Director who will remember that the purpose of the organization is to produce shows people want to see, at a sustainable price.
Stop the disastrous and costly experiments with VR and go back to the roots of producing quality live theater (and film it for broader distribution).
Build a functioning finance department that can pay bills on time.
5 To quote Shakespeare: "Hell is empty and all the devils are here"
Artistic and current leadership can be great artists, but are convinced they can do the administrative and business side of operations and, as evidenced by all of my former colleagues reviews here, obviously cannot. They demand respect but refuse to respect anyone else’s expertise in their fields or professions. The amount of time and energy spent trying to do our jobs while having to carefully tiptoe around wild narcissism and egos was unmatched and exhausting. Leadership has no understanding of people’s jobs outside of their Artistic department, and thus continuously led to poor staffing decisions including nonsensical layoffs, stolen ideas, and interdepartmental strain. Gaslighting and retaliation against speaking up was a huge issue, and one I personally was affected by along with many of my colleagues. Training in systems is nearly non-existent. People let go without warning and their colleagues forced to take up work they are not trained in was very common. Always understaffed and very high turnover. While I was very optimistic of the DEI work, it eventually means nothing when leadership, many of them BIPOC themselves, turn out to be toxic and abusive. So many instances of talk the talk, but not walk the walk. I could go on, but honestly they have already taken so much of my labor in ways I did not consent, that I am simply too tired to remember everything.
Advice to Management
Leave. Accept your implicit role in this organization’s last breath. Yes, there were already systematic issues, yes it was already in a downward trajectory before the COVID shutdown, but the horrific mismanagement of funds and staff over the last few years should be acknowledged and accountability taken – don’t you remember we had a whole series of DEI trainings on accountability? Or was that only to waste staff’s time? Unfortunately, Leadership and Artistic only speak hollow words and never once walked the path of OSF’s stated Mission and Values. Sad, as at least the rest of us tried. As for everyone outside the organization reading this: take any press release or media news relating to OSF with a grain of salt. Look at it with a critical eye. Because as staff and former staff who loved this organization and the work we were trying to do, we are tired of the lies.
Listen to and protect whistleblowers and people who bring credible claims of harassment and discrimination.
Invest in the Education program, which used to be one of OSF's Crown Jewels but has been denigrated by artistic leadership for the last several years even though it was a major source of pride (as well as new audiences and new donors) for decades. Just because you’ve spoken to people who attended once in high school and never came back doesn't mean that thousands of others haven't made a lifelong connection to the arts through that program - expand it instead of killing it.
Run leaner productions with fewer frills and less expensive sets to cut costs.
Stop wasting millions of dollars on expensive contractors and endless strategic planning.
Remember that you are a theater. Your job is to produce shows people want to see, then sell them tickets to see it.
6 A theatrical “omniverse” of toxic “paradigms” and abuse. The most dysfunctional org in American Theatre.
While I was there, there seemed to be a fear around reporting less than ideal working conditions to leadership especially if it was dissonant against the “vision” or anyone that was favored by the AD or ED. The fiscal mismanagement has existed for years now, and due to lack of leadership or backbone from the last ED, we continued to hemorrhage cash on superfluous staffing, digital and VR programming and other personal favors that have yielded little monetary returns which this org needs desperately. Many of these ideas came from the AD who had a strenuous relationship with the ED and ultimately fed him to the board. He didn’t “resign”. He was fired. Full stop. It’s all just legalese for OSF to avoid another lawsuit. And finally, if you’re a person of color, please look for employment elsewhere. Despite the leadership team being primarily people of color, almost all off them are toxic. I was foolish to think this place would be any different. If you don’t fit the mold, you’re going to have a hard time fitting in here.
Advice to Management
It’s hard for me to say this, but the organization is beyond saving in its current iteration. It needs to be gutted. It’s is rotting from the inside and out and it needs leaders that are in it solely for the health of the institution, not industry recognition.
6 Not recommended
Need all new leadership. Start over. Bring back the theater we all knew and loved. It worked! Seats were sold out. The community was proud. People planned their trips around OSF. Families had reunions every year there. It was a summer celebration of live theater.
Berthold Brecht, George Bernard Shaw and countless others found fresh and interesting ways to get their contemporaries discussing what they perceived to be the problems ailing society. Like other pusillanimous spirits, the OSF fiends gleefully obey an ideology that is out to destroy venerable institutions that used to bring joy, knowledge, insights and laughter to the world instead of creating something new and enriching. Thank you for reminding us once more to beware the brethren of the red guards wherever they raise their ugly heads!
Who is investigating:
The number of salaries that were paid to employees who were on sick leave - for years.
The former employee who continued to use the Festival's Air BnB account long after leaving.
The former employees who got pay outs for wrongful termination.
The trips to Sundance - Sundance is for film, not theatre.
The fact that the AD's husband is on the payroll! - As a consultant.
The fact that salaries are bloated.
The amount of money wasted in the online platforms
Okay, Mary, you're a poet and I am a numbers nerd from hell. But a poet or three has told me that I have a great untutored eye for modern art, and I have occasionally said that the biggest difference between humans and animals is that humans create art on purpose. Art is everywhere you look, and I love it. I say all this in hopes that you and others here will put up with what I have to say. It's artless, but I want people to pay attention.
I am a retired financial analyst with deep experience in financial statement analysis, so I have focused on Oregon Shakespeare Festival's IRS disclosures (Form 990), and the most recent audit performed by McDonald Jacobs, an accountancy in Portland. OSF's fiscal 2021 ended on Oct. 31, and the audit showed a cash balance of $17.4 million.
The most OSF has ever lost in any year, near as I can tell, is $4.5 million -- in FY21 -- but that loss was counterbalanced by a big influx of cash from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a covid-generated program administered by the Small Business Administration. Even though OSF lost $4.5 million from operations, its cash on hand went from $12.2 million to $17.4 million in the same FY.
Why does that matter? Because it's been only 17-1/2 months since their FY21 ended, but OSF is threatening to cancel their season unless they get $1.5 million by June, and they've established a fundraising goal of $2.5 million by the end of the summer. In the words of the immortal Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: "Where's the Money?"
OSF is seeking a $5.1 million bailout from the taxpayers of Oregon. My question, again, is "Where's the Money?" How did they ever run through $17.4 million in 17-1/2 months when they haven't even come remotely close to doing that in the decade or so worth of IRS Form 990s that I looked at?
(split because of the length limit here)
I started attending OSF back in the 80s, taking my then teen-age son to see "Midsummer Night's Dream" and a delightful Sheridan Restoration comedy. My husband and I have since attended OSF every year for decades, except for the pandemic closures, usually immersing ourselves in 5-6 plays and staying in B&Bs where we can talk theatre with other like-minded friends. Thank you for crystallizing in words the conflicted feelings we've had about the offerings from the past several years. We fall into that category you describe ... progressive mindset with a keen, open-minded interest in history. Some plays, such as "The African Company Presents Richard III" are powerful, and can present history in a way that is illuminating without co-opting a largely white audience into singing about how much we suck. There have been many contemporary social-justice plays we've enjoyed, but it does feel unbalanced in recent years. I have heard others express this same sentiment.
Are you all racing to purchase your tickets to the newly announced 'Cyberland' film extravaganza? Featured are the AD's (OSF funded) vanity film projects that never got any traction despite her fully funded escapades to Sundance, etc: https://www.osfashland.org/productions/2023-digital/cyberland
Sigh, just 4 years ago OSF was the largest repertory theater company in the country. The annual 11 production repertoire featured critically acclaimed new plays and always - Shakespeare.
So very far to sink.
This must be the same doc - at the top it says "NOV 1, 2020 and ending OCT 31, 2021" If you have the $17M balance you have it! So sorry if I am misdescribing! The next newest Audit we heard just today "has not yet been completed" but it should be soon because last years was released in March.
I am just a 'Some Girl' artist who has also analyzed all the available OSF financials thru 2021 and SG, you get the prize! The 2021 Audit shows a balance of $17,403,992 (as well as an endowment of $38,664,051, but that is a topic for another tale). Where this money has gone will be revealed any day as the 2022 audit is coming! The Ashland community has been awash in details yet cowed by venomous and oh-so public accusation. The day of reckoning and accountability for those responsible for this tragedy is close.
Related to fiscal history, I was frustrated hearing excuses from current OSF leadership describing “years of structural deficits". So I did an analysis of the income-expenditures revenue stream using data from the 2010-2018 Annual Reports. Six of those years ended in deficit spending. (2018 being a bad smoke/many canceled performances season). Three of the years showed a profit. Total losses in 9 years equaled $9,917,301 and total profit was $7,274,015.
So, 9 years, 99 productions and a total expenditure of $307M yielded a loss of $2,642,286. I am not advocating for deficit spending. Nor am I denying that the prior AD pretty much had the run of the candy store. But a $2.6M loss over 9 years it not what it is made out to be by those who use it to defend the current administration, A.D. and Board alike. What they would give for a return to $40M annual budgets. Not on this watch!
From - https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/930407022
Scroll down to FISCAL YEAR ENDING OCT., 2021 PDF Audit and hit the green box titled AUDIT
This takes you to: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_audit/25273720211
which is the full IRS Audit of OSF for 2021 At least it does for me and I am a total neophyte!
Yes. If you want to see them Google 'OSF Annual Reports' and they are listed by year. They are part donor acknowledgement, part marketing, and part celebration of successes - listed with data regarding attendance compared to capacity for each production, etc. Much easier to read/interpret. One significant point of interest on the 990's is the listing of salaries for the top positions of leadership. You will see that the OSF AD is being VERY VERY well compensated and that was 2 years ago. It is my understanding that her salary has since increased significantly. Rather than a reduction, in keeping with the fiscal crisis, her salary was raised as she was given the additional title of Interim Executive Director when the board euphemistically "accepted the resignations" of the two other leading salaried employees, including the Director of Development, both announced in January.
So sorry, I hate oblique acronyms! Artistic Director is in many theaters (but not all) and OSF the primary decision maker regarding a theater's content/productions, tone setter- as in messaging/marketing, hiring of actors etc..
I have a lot of conflicted thoughts about Shakespeare, the Ashland Shakespeare Theater and the free
Shakespeare in the park, that at one point in time put Shakespeare all over Portland in Parks and cemeteries for free. To begin with there is the fascinating and as it turns out controversial issue of who actually wrote the plays. See www dot sirbacon dot org. I remember scouring the bookstores in Ashland for discussion of the authorship question; none of the bookstores had hardly anything. Francis Bacon himself wrote the plays to transform reality, thus putting him in line with the "woke culture" of today. Bacon was also an early proponent and founder of secret societies including the Rosicrucians and the Free Masons. His was the world of all powerful "philosopher kings" which ironically with the rise of antifa and the cultural revolutionaries, puts him right in the mix. That said, I agree that the cultural institutions have now taken on denouncing, belittling and dumbing down, the audiences that pay good money to see "plays". Another take-away from this cultural hellscape / dystopia is that "critical race theory" is adamantly opposed to "critical thinking" because Critical Thinking can empower individuals while "crt" locks people into a passive subservient mode. Just what the elites ordered! (hence the continued funding of this shit show.)
Nuanced article on Philanthropy.com: https://www.philanthropy.com/article/race-shakespeare-and-a-theaters-fight-to-survive . Paywall, but if you register you can see two articles for free.
I’m a poet (a poetaster, anyway) and a programmer – but not remotely an accountant.
FWIW, I found this very entertaining, interesting, and even moving.
I remember trying to figure out how to establish an account, but I don't remember feeling a concern other than wanting to be truthful. Maybe that's because I've become socialized to accept personal intrusion. I hope not.
For those interested in diving into the most recent 2021 OSF 990 - be sure to look for the $42,9k compensation to the AD's husband for "CONTRACTED SERVICES". It is my understanding that this compensation continued into the following year - yet to be exposed in the pending '2022 audit.