City review to follow resignation of theater's director

The Rochester Civic Theatre’s use of taxpayer funds will be put under the microscope next Tuesday morning as the city’s Outside Agency Oversight Committee conducts its annual review of the organization’s finances.

The review will come amid a period of transition for theater, which lost its leader last Friday when executive director Kevin Miller abruptly resigned. A statement from the theater’s board cited Miller’s desire to be closer to his family in Chippewa Falls, Wis., where he had been commuting from.

Council Member Nick Campion, who sits on the oversight committee, said the purpose of the meeting will be to better understand how the theater is using its $200,000 annual contribution from the city.

“We want to make sure that it is clear that we expect this funding from the city to go to support the building, which the taxpayers own,” he said.

In the past, Campion noted, the city has verbally articulated its desire to see city funds used for the building itself, rather than the general mission of the organization. However, going into 2020, the city is now requiring private groups — like RCT, the Rochester Art Center and 125 Live — to be more specific about how they plan to use taxpayer money.

“The council wants to clearly articulate a difference between money we give to organizations for direct services and money we give to organizations to maintain our facilities, such as the theater space,” he said.

In the case of the theater, Campion said the city had recently been made aware of concerns about the state of the organization’s finances.

Those concerns prompted Campion and his colleagues from the city to request several pieces of additional information from the theater.

MPR News reported Thursday that as a result of the inquiry, the city later learned that the theater took out a $300,000 loan last fall. Campion called the loan “an indicator of an organization that’s in financial distress.”

Despite the financial woes, RCT Board President Jeff Haynes told us this week that there was no indication Miller resigned for any other reason than to be closer to his family. He also said Miller’s decision was entirely his own.

Numbers provided by RCT earlier this week show the theater losing $336,327 from August 2018 to January 2020, despite bringing in $1,727,711 in revenue. To start the year, the organization now holds $628,260 in assets and $733,230 in liabilities, according to the balance sheet.

“Any community theater has difficulty keeping up with financial demands,” said Haynes. “It always seems to be a struggle, and this is no different.”

During his brief tenure with RCT, Miller had sought to breathe new life into an organization that had been reeling in the wake of a scandal involving former director Gregory Stavrou. From 2018-19, with Miller at the helm, the theater had four sell-outs for shows that included Shrek and Annie.

Many of those shows, however, leaned on the use of professional actors for lead roles — helping drive attendance, but also deficits. (The theater had historically relied on volunteer cast members.)

Now as the organization looks to the future, Haynes said the board will spend some time discussing a long-term financial strategy for the theater before beginning the search for a new executive director.

In the meantime, the show must go on. The 2019-20 series continues on February 7 with the debut of The Other Place in the RCT Black Box.

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.

[This story has been updated since its initial publication.]