Playhouse drops director in restructuring

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

In a staff restructuring designed to improve its fundraising capability, the Youngstown Playhouse board of directors has let go Mary Ruth Lynn, executive director for the past four years.

The board is now interviewing candidates for the newly-created position of interim operations manager.

All Playhouse staff had been laid off on Dec. 16, including Lynn, office manager Carla Gipson, and technical directors Jim Lybarger and John Pecano. Gipson and Lynn were informed last week that their positions had been eliminated, effective immediately. Lybarger and Pecano have since been rehired.

Tom DeToro, board president, said the theater is financially “just making it” and has no plans to close, but wants to build a cushion of money.

The Playhouse faced closure in 2008 when it became overwhelmed with debt. The board, led by then-president Rand Becker, was quickly able to get back in the black and hired Lynn in 2009 to steer the theater forward. Becker stepped down June 30 and was replaced by DeToro.

The chief cause of the financial crisis was a sudden and sharp decline in grant money caused by the poor economy, a situation that persists to this day.

Lynn was in charge of both the artistic and financial aspects of the theater. Whoever is hired as the operations manager will also have both duties, said DeToro.

Both Lynn and Gipson were invited to apply for the post, although Lynn has already said she would not.

The board’s restructuring is a work in progress, according to DeToro, who linked it to the Playhouse’s 90th anniversary season, which begins this fall. “The way community theater is now, it’s not going to be run like it was in the ’80s and ’90s,” he said. “We must retool with our limited resources and still create quality theater and be a part of [the neighborhood’s] revitalization. With our 90th anniversary coming up, it’s a good time to do this.”

The Playhouse must focus more on bringing in dollars from sources other than ticket sales, he said.

DeToro praised Lynn for improving the quality and diversity of productions. “We wanted to continue working with her but [the theater] is an ever-growing fundraising world and [the board] needs to be fiscally responsible about this.”

Lynn plans to stay involved in theater but has not yet decided her next move. “I’m proud of what I accomplished,” she said, citing strides in artistic quality, involvement of new and returning actors and directors, the Griffith-Adler series for non-mainstream plays, and fundraising for building improvements. “I leave with no regrets other than I won’t be there for the 90th anniversary, and I wish them well.”