4/2/2023 0 Comments Heather mackeen iconographer![]() ![]() Meanwhile, McKeen’s name is no longer to be found on OCT’s website, and no official announcement of his departure has been made. Equity and inclusion will be part of the board’s decision-making process, she said. That will make it possible for the company to begin a national search in January for a permanent managing director. “We are in the final steps of hiring an interim managing director,” Carter-Jura said, adding that she expects that person to be on board before the end of December. I’ve already turned my attention to what an early retirement can be.” He had been two or three years away from retiring, he added.Īnd the OCT board is looking ahead. “When I think about all the problems that are no longer mine to solve, a great weight feels lifted. “It didn’t take long for me to get over the shock of it and to take stock of what lies ahead,” he said. “What’s in the future? That’s the reality that we’re facing.” “It’s not just the economic realities we face right now, but also the unknown,” she said. Separately, McKeen echoed that feeling: “I wish them all well, and certainly bear no animus toward the company.” But Carter-Jura also cited financial concerns as the pandemic has worn on, including uncertainty over when and how OCT, which traditionally has counted on large daytime audiences of school classes bused in on field trips, will be able to resume live productions. “I just want to underscore how impressed I am by the dedication of our staff, at all levels,” she said. ![]() ![]() ![]() Photo: Owen CareyĬarter-Jura praised the company’s staff. Jenna Yokoyama and Ken Yoshikawa in Oregon Children’s Theatre’s production in the Winningstad Theatre of “The Journey of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559.” Naomi Iizaka’s play, set in a World War II Japanese American internment camp in northern California, was canceled mid-run in March when coronavirus shutdowns began. I thought we’d found a tenable middle ground, but they apparently thought otherwise.” I felt they wanted to make budget cuts that were more draconian than I believed were either needed or healthy for the company’s survival. “There was no warning,” McKeen said of his release, “though my relationship with key board leaders had grown more strained as we struggled to reconcile differences in our views of the budget and OCT’s future. In tandem with recently retired Artistic Director Stan Foote he had helped OCT become a major national player among children’s theaters, with numerous co-productions and high-profile world premieres. Before that he spent several years as a grant writer and fundraising consultant for several Portland arts organizations, served a year as the first manager of the Oregon Cultural Trust, and spent three years as general manager of Portland Center Stage. He’d been OCT’s managing director since 2008. The departure of McKeen, one of the city’s most prominent arts leaders, comes as something of a shock. Board President Amanda Carter-Jura, citing board confidentiality, said in a phone conversation simply that McKeen no longer was associated with OCT. McKeen, in an email, called the sudden shift a firing. That happened in mid-November at one of Portland’s biggest performing institutions, Oregon Children’s Theatre, when Managing Director Ross McKeen and the company parted ways. Sometimes a strain becomes a surprising break. THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS PUT HUGE STRAINS on cultural organizations and on the people who work at them. ![]()
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