Michigan Theatre Faces Lawsuit as Members Seek Removal of Board Leaders

by Chris Peterson

Nearly 60 members of the theatre have filed a lawsuit seeking to remove board leaders Nancy Whitmore and Kathryn Snyder, alleging illegal and dishonest conduct, abuse of power, and a collapse of trust.

That is an extraordinary thing for members of a theatre community to do, and it says more than any carefully worded board statement ever could.

What stands out to me most is that this did not happen in a vacuum. OnStage Blog already weighed in when longtime executive director Steve Tucker was pushed out, and the response from the community immediately suggested there was much more going on than a simple leadership transition.

Tucker, who had led the theatre for nearly 15 years, said he was abruptly terminated in January and told to turn in his keys and leave that same day, despite the board publicly framing the situation as a retirement-related move.

Theatre boards have a responsibility to protect the mission of an institution, but they also have a responsibility to the people who sustain it. A nonprofit theatre is not a private club. It depends on community trust. Donors, volunteers, artists, staff, and patrons are not just background players in the life of a theatre. They are the theatre. When so many of them reach a point where they feel legal action is necessary, that is not a misunderstanding. That is a leadership failure.

And this clearly has not stayed confined to one staffing decision. Former board member Hattie Oliver has said she opposed Tucker’s dismissal, was outvoted, and believes the controversy is already having a financial impact, with donors holding back pledges and events moving elsewhere. That is when a leadership problem becomes an institutional one.

And yes, there are always details the public does not know. But once a situation reaches this level, leadership no longer gets to hide behind that reality.

If trust has broken down this completely, the people in charge need to answer for how it happened. Silence and vague language may work for a little while, but eventually, people read that for what it is. When an organization stops communicating clearly, it usually creates a vacuum that gets filled with anger, suspicion, and even deeper fractures.

That is what makes this so disgraceful. Not just the lawsuit itself, but the path that led here. Somewhere along the way, this board appears to have lost sight of the fact that stewardship requires transparency, humility, and respect for the community. Without those things, all you are left with is power without credibility.

This kind of damage does not stay contained to a courtroom or a board meeting. It spreads. It affects donor confidence, staff morale, artistic momentum, and the public’s willingness to believe in the institution at all.

It also sends a message to every person watching from the outside that internal leadership matters just as much as the work happening onstage. A theatre can recover from disagreement. Recovering from broken trust is much harder.