After Jeff Wiseman was hired as the Waldo Theatre’s new executive director in February, he began doing what new leaders commonly do: making some changes.
One was to end Waldo After Dark, a popular, volunteer-run series that screened cult movies like “Gremlins” and “The Fly.” On April 24, when Wiseman and the theater’s board president met with the two volunteers who had started the program to break the news, things quickly deteriorated. The meeting ended with the police being called after one of the volunteers lashed out at Wiseman.
That volunteer, Buffy Hull, had become angry with what they perceived as a unilateral decision, and got up to leave. Sampson and Wiseman urged them to come back, saying that the staff and board valued Hull and their fellow volunteer, Samantha Wheeler, and they were welcome to continue volunteering.
Hull “blew up,” yelled profanities and said, “If I don’t leave, I’m going to hit this man,” before storming out. Wheeler stayed to talk for a few minutes more, then also walked out of the meeting.
While no arrests were made, it was a dramatic moment that shows just how frustrated some have become in the community that The Waldo has built since the historic theater was reopened in 2021. In addition to ending Waldo After Dark, Wiseman also abruptly announced the cancellation of the springtime community theater production of the play “Something Rotten.”
Wiseman describes the recent changes at the Waldo as part of a process of professionalizing the theater’s operations and setting reasonable expectations for volunteers. But the actions have prompted a backlash from some quarters, as certain longtime volunteers and patrons worry that the Waldo is loosening its commitment to grassroots, accessible community programming.
“It’s just important that we try to show each other that regardless of differences in opinions or creative ideas, that first and foremost, we understand that it’s community theater,” said Joseph Lugosch, one of the organizers of the canceled spring play. “If it’s community theater, we have to prioritize how our community is doing.”
Wiseman stepped into his role at the end of February. He has a long background in theater fundraising and moved to Maine from Maryland for this job. As he began getting the lay of the land through conversations with staff, volunteers and board members, he realized that some major programs were being led by volunteers, contravening what he understood to be a best practice at nonprofits, which is that programs should be staff-led and volunteer-supported.
“I was hired, in part, to bring an organizational structure to the Waldo with clear rules for everyone internally and clear accountability,” Wiseman said.
That meant taking a hard look at programs that were being helmed almost entirely by volunteers.
The Waldo After Dark was started by volunteers Wheeler and Hull several years ago, and it has since hosted nighttime screenings once or twice a month. These affordable events had a sociable vibe; Wheeler would bring in movie memorabilia, and there would sometimes be a raffle or goodie bags guests could claim with a password.
At the beginning of April, Wheeler and Hull sat down with Wiseman for a getting-to-know-you meeting; they say that the tone turned tense and by the end of the conversation, Wiseman told them they would need to cut planned screenings and reduce the program to four times a year.
Wiseman describes this as the first conversation in what he understood to be an ongoing dialogue about Wheeler and Hull’s future roles as volunteers. However, by the time they met again, this time with Waldo Theatre’s board president Kimberly Sampson, Wiseman had decided to end The Waldo After Dark entirely, though he was open to Wheeler and Hull curating films in the future from time to time.
But when he broke this news to Wheeler and Hull on April 24, they say they felt blindsided. Hull said their words were not a true threat since they were on their way out the door as they said them.
But Sampson described the interaction as frightening, and after consulting with a human resources representative, Sampson and Wiseman decided to file a police report to put the incident on record. A Waldoboro police officer came to the Waldo to take a report, but no charges were filed.
The series of events that led to canceling the spring play was much less contentious but rested on the same rationale. A longtime volunteer, George Bates, was set to serve as producer on “Something Rotten,” a time-intensive, demanding job that he has executed many times before.
In order to shift away from individual volunteers holding too much operational responsibility, the theater asked the show’s organizers to choose another producer. They refused and walked away. The Waldo sent out a notice of the play’s cancellation on April 25, the same day that auditions were to take place.
“We had one of the core pieces of our programming, which was community theater… being run by a volunteer, and that volunteer was doing everything from artistic control to managing other volunteers, managing a budget, doing marketing, newsletter outreach, and doing it kind of outside the purview of the executive director,” said Keri Lupien, the Waldo’s music booker and program director, as well as former board member, who was involved in reopening the Waldo in 2021, “and that just is not something that we can continue to have going forward.”
She said that while volunteers were instrumental in galvanizing the community and getting the theater up and running again, it’s now essential that major programs are helmed by staff members who are accountable to the board and executive director and have to follow procedures outlined in the employee handbook.
“As we’ve grown in our capacity and our size, it’s become really clear that if we want to be sustainable and be here long term, we really needed to kind of grow up as an organization and put things in place for us to continue,” she said.
Lupien and Wiseman emphasized that Bates is a valued volunteer who is welcome to produce one play a year moving forward; he is currently acting in and producing “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” which will premiere at the Waldo in June. Bates declined to comment when reached by email.
As it stands, both the organizers of the Waldo After Dark and of “Something Rotten” are looking for alternative venues for their programs; “Something Rotten” intends to keep Bates as its producer. Hull said they feel stung that their work over the years, which included helping get filmmaker John Waters to the Waldo, was not valued in Wiseman’s programming decision.
“It was really offensive for this person that’s been there for essentially 5 minutes to come in and just be like, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’” Hull said.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.
