Was a Theatre Staff Fired for a Social Media Post Supporting Black Lives Matter or Budget Cuts?

The Old Creamery Theatre Company

• Noah Golden

On June 10, the Old Creamery Theatre Company in Amana, Iowa, posted a statement to their website and social media in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that was critical of the theater's historic lack of diversity. Less than a month later, the Board of Trustees fired the entire staff, except for the general manager, by email. While the Board said the decision was due to the financial hardships of COVID-19, ex-staff members aren't so sure.

The not-for-profit professional Old Creamery Theatre Company was founded in 1971. Its website states that the company "has been dedicated to performing high-quality, live professional theatre for audiences of all ages and interests." Their 2020 Mainstage season was to include "Steel Magnolias," "Legally Blonde" and "The Buddy Holly Story." The entire season, like almost all across the country, was canceled due to COVID-19.

Budget Issues

The fallout from the pandemic, according to Board Of Trustees President Peter R. Teahen, is why the theatre took the drastic move of cutting ten positions. "After ending the season in March, we got PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] money, but that ended June 30," Teahen explained in a phone interview (Treasurer Mike Murray was also present, but mostly silent, on the call), "There just wasn't enough income. The other offerings brought in some money, but never even came close. We had to cut staff because we wouldn't have had money to pay them and pay operating expenses."

The decision, he says, was painful and one that was ultimately made with the best intentions. "None of us liked that we had to terminate staff, they're like family to us. The decision came after we talked to attorneys and accountants and other experts and asked, 'do we furlough or lay-off or terminate?' Everyone told us to terminate because you have no idea when they could come back or if they're going to come back. The right thing to do is terminate them and allow them to make decisions, get unemployment benefits, and hopefully, when COVID is over, you can bring the stage up. We were recommended to terminate the employees on June 30. The Board said, 'We're going to wait until early July so we can cover their medical insurance for the month of July.'"

Katie Colletta

However, Katie Colletta, who was the interim artistic director before she was let go, says the COVID crisis was only "a clever and convenient way to clean house and get rid of voices in the company who were attempting to hold the theatre accountable for its actions, as well as pushing for structural changes like insurance and benefits packages for employees."

Speaking to Colletta and Teahen, you get very different concepts about the state of Old Creamery Theatre Company's financial situation. While Teahen says that the company is small, "doesn't have an endowment, only a few generous donors" and relies almost exclusively on ticket sales (of which there are virtually none for the 2020 season), Colletta paints a different picture.

According to a press briefing written by the ex-staff-members, the "staff had hosted fundraisers in conjunction with other Iowa theatres, created an online arts education program…and a variety of drive-in style performances, along with grants to help pay for staff salaries during the pandemic through the Iowa Arts Council and the Iowa Arts & Culture and an Emergency Relief Grant." Even the transparency of the budget is debated. Teahen says the staff was invited to monthly board meetings where financials were discussed. At the same time, Colletta told me over email that neither she nor the staff was alerted of any meetings between the theatre’s closing in March and their firing in July.

The Black Lives Matter Post

In a statement posted to their website and social media platforms on June 10th, then-executive director Ashley Shields, as well as then-interim artistic directors Colletta and Keegan Christopher, wrote about the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement in regards to their theater. In a since-deleted post, which can be read in its entirety here, they wrote that,

"The Old Creamery Theatre does not have a history of inclusion and diversity and its leadership and staff over the years has reflected this as much as the stories told on stage. Words like 'family-friendly,' 'marketable' and, worse yet, 'our audience isn't ready for that,' have been used to avoid telling stories and making decisions that might upset the status quo. In this way, the theater has been complicit in racist systems….We are storytellers – but we have not been brave ones – and this is something we must reckon with….We have muted the most oppressed of voices, denied thousands of patrons and students the right to see themselves on our stage, and failed to create shared theatre experiences that might challenge how we think, feel and act.

We must, can and will do better."

This was followed by five action points intended to make the theatre more diverse and create a "zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment, and intimidation."

Two days after the post, the Board of Trustees demanded the statement be removed. According to Colletta, "Shields was subjected to a 90-minute phone call with the Executive Committee that left her visibly shaken. She was forbidden to discuss the BLM statement and diversity in general with her staff.

Undeterred, she held a staff meeting to discuss those topics the following day, during which all of the now-terminated staff vehemently expressed their support for the BLM statement. Prior to the statement, we felt supported and encouraged by the Board. That all changed once the statement was posted. Emails went unanswered, phone calls weren't returned."

Teahen does confirm the Board asked for the post's removal but says the content wasn't to blame. "It wasn't the issue of what they were saying; it was more based on the procedure and protocol. In any company or organization, to make a statement of that nature on a company page, you need to go through proper channels to get approval. You can't establish corporate policy without asking corporate leadership first."

Colletta says the Board never once asked her or any marketing director for approval of a social media post in the three years she oversaw the channels.

Lack of Diversity

Board Of Trustees President Peter R. Teahen

In a time when many theatre companies are reckoning with issues of diversity, Colletta felt now “was the time to make room for BIPOC voices and to give that community a real seat at the table." She says, in her tenure at Old Creamery, not a single play was written or directed by someone from the BIPOC community and that "when an artist of color came, they are almost always the only person of color in the cast."

When asked directly about the theater's lack of diversity and BIPOC representation, Teahen told me that the plays aren't chosen by the Board of Trustees but by a "diverse program committee made up of the executive director, a few board members, actors, staff, crew members, costume people, etc, [who] look at our stage, the budget and try to figure out what will put patrons in the seats."

He says that no show has been rejected by the Board in his tenure. "I don't know if we're any more or any less diverse than any other theatre in the country," he concluded, "I don't think any [committee members] can be pointed at for being racist or discriminating certain groups. They do the best they can with what's out there."

The Firing

On July 2, ten staff members were sent emails from the Board detailing their termination. The members say that "the local sheriff sat in the parking lot as they left the building an hour after receiving their email." It was a shock, according to Colletta, who told me that, "if we had been given even a week's notice of the closing of the company, we would have tidied the building, called patrons to arrange refunds and made requisite adjustments to the website and social media pages."

Teahen, however, mentioned that while the email's timing was unknown to the staff members, the writing on the wall about the company's dire financial situation was well-known to them. "They were part of that discussion in March and every month after," he said, "They knew after the PPP we had nothing to pay payroll with."

Teahen says that a Zoom meeting was planned for later that day, where he would explain the situation and terminations in detail. But ten minutes before the meeting was to begin, he received an email from former executive director Ashley Shields, stating that "the staff feels unsafe and is unwilling to attend the meeting."

Not a single one of the ten fired staffers came to the meeting. I cannot verify the content of Shield's email, which Teahen calls full of "unfounded claims," but can confirm the meeting existence.

What's Next?

The house of the Old Creamery Theatre Company

Even though there are many discrepancies between Colletta and Teahen's side of the story, both express sadness about the way events transpired. "The other terminated staff are some of the most conscientious, dedicated, and rational colleagues I've ever worked with," Colletta told me. She says while neither her nor her colleagues want their jobs back, they are speaking up in order to create change in the theatre company.

“Any board member who mandates that their executive director is not permitted to discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion with employees is not fit to serve on a board in 2020. We want this Executive Committee removed. We want a comprehensive plan of action regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement to be reposted and incorporated into a new mission statement. We want people of color to sit on the new Executive Committee and to be appointed to positions of leadership on staff (executive director, artistic director, etc.) at Old Creamery Theatre."

When asked about plans going forward for Old Creamery, Teahen only mentioned his hope that the "small theater in the cornfields of Iowa" would survive the COVID pandemic. They have plans for building a bigger theater, collaborating with a local college, and continuing to produce a full season of work. He did say, however, that he "feels sick by this whole thing because we care deeply about the staff.

The Board has worked in good faith to do the right thing. We mourn their loss."

We will update this article with new information as it becomes available.