Victorian Players theater director resigns

January 8, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

YOUNGSTOWN

The board of directors at Victorian Players is running the community theater after the resignation of Managing Director J.E. Ballantyne Jr.

“The Vic intends to put its board of directors to work to run the theater,” said Thomas Copeland, board secretary, in an email. “Each of us has expertise of various sorts that can serve to move us forward. We owe our former leaders — Jean Kelty, Marilyn Higgins and Jack Ballantyne — much for guiding us to this point, but we now intend to manage our business as a group.”

Ballantyne resigned Dec. 22 over what he calls the “overall poor conditions” for local theater. He held the top post at the theater for two years, but had been considering stepping down for some time.

Attendance has been declining at the Victorian for the past year, despite increases in advertising and promotional efforts.

The last well-attended production at the theater, which is located in a converted 1890s church at 702 Mahoning Ave., near downtown, was “The Odd Couple” in September 2012, according to Ballantyne. That comic production starred local television personalities Len Rome and Jim Loboy.

In November and December, the Victorian presented “Specter of Treason — The Oswald Trial,” a play that creates a fictional trial for the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Attendance was not good, which appears to have been the last straw for Ballantyne, who wrote and directed the play.

“When you put in as much time and effort as I had put in over the past two years, it becomes a question of banging your head against the wall,” said Ballantyne. “I don’t think that it is an economic issue since it is apparent that people will pay to go see what they want to see. After the thousands of hours spent on ‘Specter of Treason’ and the accompanying JFK seminar, it was very disheartening to see the low turnout to both events. It was then I decided that it just isn’t worth doing theater in and around Youngstown. There just isn’t enough support to make it worthwhile.”

Ballantyne said he will continue to work as a director, playwright and producer, but in other areas. He is directing a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at Geauga Lyric Theater in Chardon in May.

Ballantyne hinted at another reason for moving on. He believes the Vic wants to return to its original menu of mostly Victorian-era theater, and he doesn’t agree with that path. The theater had branched into more mainstream fare in recent years.

Copeland sees the theater as staying the course.

“We have not altered our original focus, [which is] the works and the values of the Victorian Age,” he said. “The works we choose, although not all written by authors born during the reign of [Queen] Victoria, are consistent with the literature of that period and would be appreciated by audiences of Victoria’s day. We also offer as special events other plays, some old, some new, that we think are fun or of special value.”