Theater's manager garners bad notices, Hagerstown divided by landmark stage
Peter JensenTHE BALTIMORE SUN
HAGERSTOWN -- One of Maryland's most significant theatrical landmarks has become the stage for a true-life drama.
There have been angry staff resignations, a decline in bookings and a $132,000 debt that nearly forced Hagerstown's historic Maryland Theatre to close its doors this year.
But the central story line has pitted the strong-willed woman who took charge of the financially struggling enterprise last summer against a band of influential local residents that is calling for her ouster.
"If you love the Maryland Theatre, don't give money to it," warned Steven T. Sager, Hagerstown's mayor and a vocal critic of Patricia Wolford, the theater's manager. "When they get their house in order, then we can talk about it."
At stake in the conflict is one of Western Maryland's best-loved landmarks. Home to the annual Miss Maryland contest and the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, the 82-year-old building has survived a devastating fire and years of neglect.
Built as a vaudeville house and used to show movies over much of its life, the 1,400-seat theater is as elaborately decorated as any in the state and reflects a bygone, more spectacular era of show business.
Cherubim adorn the gilded plasterwork. Elegant box seats, ornate pillars and a ceiling fresco complete the effect.
But since its restoration and reopening as a nonprofit enterprise in 1978, five years after a fire destroyed its lobby and marquee, the theater has had an uneven existence. It is a source of pride for Hagerstown, yet its troubles are numerous.
"In the struggling downtown economy, it is a jewel in the crown," said Donald Wiswell, owner of The Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater, who briefly was as the Maryland Theater's managing director. "There are people with a long and deep emotional attachment to the theater. It's steeped in history."
By 1993, the theater had racked up a $250,000 debt, chiefly from live shows -- often B-list country music acts -- that couldn't sell enough tickets to cover costs. The city and a handful of banks stepped in and arranged a loan that was to be paid off this month.
But earlier this year, when the nonprofit theater's governing board announced it couldn't come up with the $132,000 balance, the theater's financiers declined to extend the note. Only a hastily arranged loan with Bulldog Federal Credit Union, the credit union for employees of the local Mack Trucks Inc. plant, averted a financial crisis.
"Running this theater is like living in an old home," said Wolford, the theater board's president and acting executive director. "You never know what's going to go wrong next."
If the theater's situation is shaky, it is Wolford who has been accused of doing a lot of the rocking. Critics say the troubled theater was on the mend until she took over in June.
They say her imperious management style and unprecedented arrangement of running the theater's board and day-to-day operations have undermined financial support, caused much of the staff to resign and created a public-relations nightmare.
Calls for resignation
The mayor's call to halt theater donations has been echoed by the local newspaper's editorial page. The Herald Mail ran a telephone poll asking readers whether Wolford should resign. The result: 99 percent said yes.
"She treats the theater like a personal possession," said Martha K. Anders, an office manager who quit on one day's notice in December. "She's a cross between Hitler and a bulldozer. Nobody else is allowed to have an opinion."
Sue Tuckwell, a former board president and wife of MSO conductor and founder Barry Tuckwell, described the theater as "grossly mismanaged." She said a drop in donations will make it hard for the theater to cover its debt as long as Wolford is in place.
"It's questionable whether the president of the board should be serving as acting executive director," said Tuckwell. "The board needs to put the theater in the hands of a professional."
Tuckwell's criticisms don't bode well for the theater's finances. She chairs the Washington County Gaming Commission, which doles out more than $1 million annually to charities. The money is generated by tip jars, the gambling tickets legally sold by county bars and fire halls.
The theater has asked the gaming commission for $130,000 when funds are next released in August. When the commission last donated money to charities, members said the theater's request for funds was improper and gave it nothing.
"There have been years when 80 shows have been in that theater, and this year they'll probably have 40," said Sager, the mayor. "Forty fewer shows means a lot fewer customers in downtown restaurants."
Last week, city officials declined to increase the municipal contribution to the theater even though the City Council set aside $10,000 in extra aid for other nonprofit groups.
Wolford says she is unfazed by the criticism. The debt, she points out, was inherited. She had to make the hard budget-cutting choices -- such as trimming staff positions from six to two -- that have made her unpopular.
"If the theater had been allowed to continue the way it was before, it would have closed last August," she said.
Change in bookings
One of the tough decisions was to stop booking shows that put the theater at financial risk -- events where stars are guaranteed a certain fee no matter how many tickets are sold. Instead, the theater offers itself to promoters in a lease arrangement, and they must bear any risk -- a move Sager insists has caused bookings to fall.
Asked about the mayor's criticisms, board members recall that Sager sought to be hired as executive director, a salaried position, and was rebuffed by the board last year.
"It's been difficult to keep politics out of this little theater," said Wolford, who receives no pay for her work.
Jack Staley Jr., a fellow board member, said people incorrectly assume that Wolford has acted without supervision or approval from the full, seven-member board.
That is not the case, said Staley, who believes a soon-to-be-released audit of the theater's books will show that Wolford has been effective.
"Someone had to take charge of the theater," said Staley, owner of a Hagerstown used bookstore and the theater's part-time organist. "The board has been in back of her for every decision, and she's had to make some tough ones."
One thing every player in the Maryland Theatre drama can claim are the best intentions. For those who have watched stars from Bob Hope to Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash and B. B. King perform here or perhaps walked across the theater's stage as they graduated high school, it's hard not to harbor similar good will.
"This can be such an emotional topic. Anything you do with the Maryland Theatre would be subject to some controversy," said Wiswell, the dinner theater owner. "This is a community asset, and anybody in charge should bear that in mind first and foremost."
Pub Date: 5/19/97
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