Third artistic director in three years departs Sarasota Players ahead of 95th season

For the third time in three years, the Sarasota Players is without an artistic director following the sudden resignation of Steven H. Butler just days after the public announcement of the company’s 95th season was abruptly postponed.

Butler, who grew up performing at the Sarasota Players, began his job in January 2023, becoming the first African-American to hold the post. He resigned on March 22 and said in an interview that he was “subjected to an unsafe, unsupportive, toxic and hostile work environment.”

In an e-mail to patrons, CEO William Skaggs said the company is “seizing this moment as an opportunity for growth and renewal.” In an interview, Skaggs said the Players will not replace Butler. Instead, he has put together a team of staff, board and community members to develop a schedule for the 2024-25 season.

“We will have a collaborative and communicative effort in building the season and looking at how we want to produce things, and we’re going to continue to look to find additional ways that engage the staff,” Skaggs said.

The theater hopes to announce a new season sometime in April.

Since Skaggs joined the Sarasota Players, it has lost three artistic leaders. Jeffery Kin resigned in 2021 after 15 years to become general director of the new organization Sarasota Rising, which is coordinating the first community-wide Living Arts Festival, scheduled for Nov. 10-17. Lee Gundersheimer, who was hired to replace Kin, was fired in August 2022 after eight months on the job.

Butler said he began sensing a change in how he was treated a few months into his job after he “began to challenge some of the practices that were in place. That’s when I began to feel the hostility.”

He said he stayed on “because as a leader within the organization, it was my responsibility and within my job description to bring about much-needed change. But it was apparent that the organization wasn’t ready for that change.”

Skaggs declined to address any specifics but said that “every organization has personnel issues.”

Butler was expected to announce the new season on March 18 in a public program at the theater in the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center. He spoke to the Herald-Tribune in advance of the announcement for a story that was scheduled to appear after the program, not knowing that the event had been postponed.

In a Facebook post, the Players wrote that “we have had some exciting opportunities come our way and we want to make sure we’ve built the best season we can for the community.”

Butler resigned about a week later.

Building a new theater venue

His resignation comes as the theater company is working on plans to win a lease agreement with the city of Sarasota to transform the historic Payne Park Auditorium into a new theater space. It will be known as The Stage and will be shared by other community arts organizations that don’t have their own performance spaces.

The company had submitted initial plans for a building project to the city last fall but withdrew them after questions from city staff. Revised plans have been submitted in the pre-application process to the city. Skaggs said the project, which adds to the existing structure, could cost about $17 million.

It’s the latest effort by the area’s oldest performing arts organization (and the state’s second-oldest community theater) to create a new, permanent home.

In 2016, the company announced a name change to the Players Centre for Performing Arts and plans to sell their historic home on U.S. 41. The idea was to use proceeds from the sale to build a multi-theater complex in the Waterside neighborhood that was just beginning to take shape in Lakewood Ranch.

The company sold its building for about $9.5 million in 2018 and moved out in September 2020, a few months into the COVID pandemic that shut down operations. In 2021 it transformed a former retail store into a theater space at the shopping center where it continues to operate.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Players artistic director resigns after 14 months