Red Words

Shakespeare Festival board members quit

By VANESSA D. OVERBECK, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 12/13/2007 11:41:01 AM PST

REDLANDS - The Redlands Shakespeare Festival will be looking for entirely new leadership this year. The board of directors resigned Wednesday in what Director Paul Jacques called a complete walkout.

Jacques refused to comment on the board's reason for the exodus.

He cited personal and professional reasons and referred all questions to his attorney.

The Redlands Shakespeare Festival presents works by the celebrated author free at the Redlands Bowl in May.

The future of the festival is in question. However, board member Eric Hill, a University of Redlands professor, will stay on until a new board is in place, Jacques said.

The board of directors also included President Ellen Schollenberger, Richard McCarty, Mary Dalton, Katherine Thomerson, Connie Jury, Heide Wilson and Dorothy Richardson.

The Redlands Shakespeare Festival has a Web site - www.redlandsshakespearefestival.com - and many of the director's e-mail addresses are listed if interested parties wish to contact them regarding the fate of the festival.

For an update on this story visit the Redlands Daily Facts Web site at www.redlandsdailyfacts.com.

E-mail Staff Writer Vanessa D. Overbeck at voverbeck@redlandsdailyfacts.com

Thursday afternoon, I spoke with Festival artistic director Steven Sabel and Bill Arsenault, who is a consultant for California Heart and Surgical Hospital, which is yet to open in Loma Linda. The hospital ties in to the story because it's the festival's title sponsor.

I also received an e-mail from board member Eric Hill, who Sabel confirmed for me is the lone member of the previous board to keep his position. Here's part of his letter:

"I can't comment on others' reasons for leaving the Board. I can say
that, though they have stepped down from the Board, I don't think I misspeak in saying that they continue to share the vision that our community should have a permanent, quality Shakespeare festival. During
their tenure on the Board, their efforts to provide our community with this Festival have been invaluable, and the incoming Board will benefit greatly from the work they have done and the groundwork they have laid.

"Aside from attending to the day-to-day business of supporting the Festival, they have helped the organization to evolve into a professional, permanent institution, something that our community should be able to take pride in for years to come. I expect that the new Board will soon meet, though the Holidays are just around the corner, so things might be a little delayed."

Sabel, for his part, disputed the notion that the Festival's board of directors quit en masse. He described the changes as part of an ongoing reorganization of the board.

Whatever changes occur, it looks like the California Heart and Surgical Hospital will have a greater say in the Festival's strategic decisions. Arsenault said that on Wednesday, he made a presentation to the old board expressing the hospital's interest in being represented on the board, although he said he did not present any ultimatums nor did he attend the meeting with the intention of spurring a boardroom shakeup.

"It was a maybe. It wasn't (give us) a seat on the board or we're out of here," he said.

But a shakeup is what happened. Sabel said a future board will include himself, a hospital representative and others with expertise in fields such as the law or accounting that may be beneficial to the Festival's activities.

Sabel also said the Festival's 2008 "Season of Power" is still a go. Next year's trio of performances is set to be comprised of "Twelfth Night," "Antony and Cleopatra" and this blogger's favorite Shakespearian play, "Macbeth."