A New Executive Director Makes His Trinity Rep Debut

Tucked away in the Lederer Theater Center, the main building of Trinity Repertory Company downtown, there’s a desk that’s been empty since the end of January, when its last occupant, Executive Director Michael Gennaro, departed. Next door to the little room, Artistic Director Curt Columbus admits he’s been a tad lonely.

“It’s been next to impossible,” Columbus says about doing both jobs solo. “Theater is really a collaborative art form, and those of us who work on the creative side require that collaboration on the technical side. I’ve been really missing that executive director role.”

Luckily for Columbus – and for the rest of the 100 or more employees that make up the state’s largest arts organization – that collaborator, Tom Parrish, most recently the executive director of Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, is on his way this month. And the part he’ll be playing seems to have been written for him.

Over his years in the business – in his post at Geva, as executive director of Merimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, MA and associate managing director/general manager of San Diego Repertory Theatre – Parrish has made a name for himself as a man with the financial acumen necessitated by the executive director role. He’s got an eye for detail that immediately impressed Trinity Board Treasurer John Lombardo, says Columbus, and a reputation, almost a niche specialty, for righting the often listing ships of not-for-profit arts organizations.

This was certainly the case at Geva, which tapped Parrish to help grow charitable giving and reverse operating deficits the theater had been running “for years.”

“We had significantly negative working capital and had been maxing out the line of credit,” Parrish says of the theater company, which has a $7 million annual operating budget and a healthy subscriber base of 10,000 season ticket holders, according to its website.

“We focused on harnessing that loyalty and passion that our audience had for theater and translate it into charitable giving. Ticket sales only cover a portion of what it actually costs to make theater… Geva is not quite [breaking] even yet, but it is generating positive cash flow, and it has every year I’ve led it,” Parrish says, noting that the theater is in the midst of wrapping up a successful $10 million capital campaign.

Residents of Rhode Island will certainly hear echoes of Trinity Rep in the struggles of Geva, which is constantly dealing with the depreciating physical plant of its historic building. The capital campaign, for instance, was largely put in place to set up a reserve of cash for maintenance and upgrades, such as replacing the roof, restoring masonry, updating for fire codes and accessibility compliance – all familiar refrains about the Lederer (full disclosure: I am a former employee of Trinity Repertory Company), especially in regards to complying with the stringent demands of Rhode Island fire code.

The Merrimack was what Parrish calls his “first turnaround,” describing a theater “plagued by deficit after deficit” that, under his leadership, went from maxing out its line of credit to running operating surpluses and operating with no lines of credit at all. Part of what any arts organization, particularly theater, struggles with is sustainability. According to Director of Marketing and Public Relations Katie Leeman, the theater’s debt was significantly decreased under Gennaro’s leadership (she points to the sale of the Pell Chafee Performance Center, the solidification of the company’s relationship with Brown University and the Question 5 bond issue that was passed in 2014), but there are still tweaks to be made on the revenue side. “Most theaters will say that over the last few years, subscriptions have dwindled; that’s a common trend,” she says, adding that Trinity Rep’s subscribers numbered at just shy of 4,200 in the fiscal year 2014. With some time to go in FY15, those numbers are at 3,900 and are expected to break even, she says. As far as contributed revenue goes, those numbers have averaged more than $2.6 million annually for the past ten years, with a comprehensive capital campaign that brought in $18 million.

As Columbus mentions in listing his reasons why he’s excited to have Parrish join the team, the considerable financial challenges of running a theater aren’t his most favorite things. He’d rather be translating, writing, directing, doing what he does best. Parrish says he understands this, and hopes to bring his talents to bear in part to help free up the creative types to do the best work they can do for their community. “The best work only happens when the organization is financially healthy. It allows everyone to focus on their work, on the mission,” he says.

Oh, and about that work? He’s excited to help make it happen. “Trinity is a great theater company with an outstanding reputation and company of artists and actors,” he says. “There are so few resident acting companies left in the United States. I’m excited for that.”

It seems like a good fit all around, then; it’s no wonder that Parrish topped the list of the names gathered in a national search by Albert Hall and Associates, the executive search firm. “Of course I’d known of Trinity. It’s one of those preeminent theater companies that everyone in the business sort of knows about,” Parrish says. “The reputation is strong and the work is really good. And I thought I could make a difference there.”

And the town? It’s not so bad, either. “Providence is great,” he says, adding that he’s looking forward to resettling in the area with his partner and dog. “It’s a very vibrant community, downtown is bustling and there’s a lot of youthful energy and a lot of potential, too. And I’ve always been attracted to potential and helping to turn it into reality.”

201 Washington Street, Providence. 351-4242, www.trinipyrep.com