Winds of Change votes to split from Astor Theatre

About 25 people showed up at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool on Saturday to discuss the Winds of Change relationship with the Astor Theatre. (Rick Conrad)

The Winds of Change theatre group has voted to end a short-lived relationship with Liverpool’s Astor Theatre and re-form as an independent society.

About 25 people showed up at a meeting on Saturday at Queens Place Emera Centre and voted to reverse a February 2023 decision to become a subcommittee within the Astor.

Nick Moase was the acting chairman of the Winds of Change. He chaired the meeting on Saturday. He is also the technical director for QCCR.

“The decision is what I expected,” he said in an interview after the meeting.

“With everything going on and the comments that have been said to me privately, I was aware that people weren’t comfortable with what the Astor Theatre was doing and that they wanted to separate the Winds of Change again to re-form.

“For 25 years, this has been on the books to discuss. We gave it a try. Things didn’t go as expected, so now we just continue on as the Winds of Change as a separate entity.”

Under the arrangement, the Winds of Change was to use its $29,000 legacy fund for theatrical productions at the theatre. That fund would then be reimbursed from ticket sales, and the Astor would keep any profit.

But recently, members of the group wanted to re-examine the relationship. 

Ashley-Rose Goodwin resigned as the Astor’s associate artistic director this March, shortly after the wrap of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. That was a Winds of Change-Astor co-production. Goodwin was the director of that show.

After her resignation, some in the community, including Winds of Change members, were upset at how the Astor was being operated by the board and recently hired executive director Jerri Southcott.

They were also annoyed when Southcott and the Astor decided not to pay for a Follies cast party at the Liverpool Curling Club. The relationship soured further when the Astor forgot to mention and thank the 70 members of the Follies cast and crew in its monthly newsletter. Southcott quickly sent out an apology the next day in another email to newsletter subscribers.

John Simmonds, the chairman of the Astor Theatre board of directors, was at the meeting on Saturday. He couldn’t comment on Saturday, but in an interview on Sunday, he said the group’s decision was unfortunate but not surprising.

“Maybe taking a long-term view, it’s probably the best for all concerned right now so that we can continue to do our thing and Winds of Change can re-form, get back and do the things that they were doing before, hopefully with the Astor. And as things cool down, we can re-examine the thing and take a look at it down the road.”

Simmonds said the Winds of Change will always be welcome at the Astor. 

“We wish the Winds of Change well. That long history between the two organizations is not going to go away. Hopefully, everybody will feel comfortable working with each other again. I know I would. I was just thinking how important it would be to be able to meet people on the street, give them a smile, a handshake, a hug, whatever, and just continue on as friends as we were before.”

Moase said on Saturday that he will not remain on the board.

A slate of 10 people was nominated to form a new board for the Winds of Change. They must re-form as a legally recognized non-profit society through the registry of joint stocks.

Moase said he believes that the arrangement with the Astor for the past year worked well. But he said the Winds of Change is in good shape, especially given the level of participation in Follies.

“I think the interest is there, the people are there again. This issue with the Astor Theatre will come to a conclusion at some point and things will continue. Amateur theatre in Liverpool isn’t going anywhere. And I think we’re probably in good shape to have another production when folks are ready again.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Winds of Change to reconsider merger with Astor Theatre

Nick Moase is the acting chairman of the Winds of Change theatre group. (Rick Conrad)

The Winds of Change theatre group is holding a meeting on April 20 to discuss whether to end its year-long merger with Liverpool’s Astor Theatre.

Nick Moase, acting chairman of the Winds of Change, said in an interview Wednesday that he called the meeting in response to concerns about recent controversy around the Astor. Moase is also the technical director for QCCR.

“I really want to make sure the community either wants to rescind this motion to become a part of the Astor Theatre and re-form as a society or if we are still comfortable going ahead and finishing up the merger with the Astor Theatre.”

Winds of Change Dramatic Society members voted to merge with the Astor Theatre Society in February 2023. The idea was that the group would become a subcommittee of the Astor and bring along its $29,000 legacy fund to be used for theatrical productions at the theatre.

But recently, members and former members of the group wanted to re-examine the relationship. Ashley-Rose Goodwin resigned as the Astor’s associate artistic director this March, shortly after the wrap of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. Goodwin was also the director of that show.

After her resignation, a group of people lobbed several accusations about how the Astor was being run. One of them was a concern about what would happen to Winds of Change and its legacy fund.

“I do want to make it clear, some of the concern that came out of the community was that the Astor took off with our money after the Follies. And that’s not the case,” Moase says.

“I have assurances from the operations manager of the theatre that the money was replenished to what it was. So the Follies up to and just after the production, actually I think was a success in terms of the merger. The name was used properly, the money was used properly, we didn’t have to pay rental for the space.”

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The idea of Winds of Change merging with the Astor had been discussed for years. 

Moase says the group’s legacy fund was kept in a separate line item on the Astor balance sheet and used for paying expenses in mounting productions at the theatre, such as costumes, sets and securing rights to plays. The Astor would then reimburse the fund from ticket sales and pocket any profit.

The Winds of Change would benefit by no longer having the expenses of running a non-profit society, such as insurance and renting the Astor for its productions.

After the decision to merge with the Astor, the Winds of Change Society stopped operating as a separate entity. It has no bank account, and it is not a recognized society on the Nova Scotia’s Registry of Joint Stock Companies.

Moase says it’s not a problem to relist the society with the registry, if the group’s membership decides to rescind the merger with the Astor.

“This meeting, it is the community telling us, the Winds of Change, what they want. And if they want to re-form as a society, get some names of people who are interested in joining, and then we start the process of getting everything squared away with the joint stocks … and then once that’s done we need to open a bank account again, we need to get directors insurance again. Then we can start (signing up) official members, making motions and getting back to the process of making plays at the Astor.”

Moase says that he planned to work on the terms of reference to complete the merger after Follies was over. 

“The merger it’s been a little slow, it has been on my shoulders and due to some things going on in my own personal life, and the fact that I was the lead set designer and builder for Follies, things have been a bit slow so we hadn’t finished all of the merger process, the terms of reference, that sort of thing.”

He says the Astor board has told him they would like to continue with the merger. But that depends on what is decided at the April 20 Winds of Change meeting.

Moase said he also wanted to address two other issues that arose after Goodwin resigned and Follies wrapped.

Some members were upset that the Astor would not pay for a party at the Liverpool Curling Club. And they were irked that the Astor forgot to mention and thank the Follies cast and crew in its monthly newsletter, sent April 2. 

“In isolation they’re minor, but as a part of the whole of what’s going on, people have really latched on to it a bit,” Moase said.

“I do think they are things we can work through. This is our first production as a sub-committee under the Astor. Of course we’re going to have things we need to iron out.

“And if you look at the framework that we’ve drawn up for our merger, we never talked about cast parties. So it’s something that we’ve usually had in the past, we’ve usually funded out of our profits that we made out of the shows, but we never mentioned it to the Astor that this is what we do. Again, I think this is something we could have overcome in the future.”

When asked if it could be seen as an honest mistake, he said: “In my view, it is.”

Jerri Southcott took over as the Astor’s executive director on Feb. 5. In a special newsletter to subscribers on April 3, she issued her “sincerest apologies” for the omission of Follies in the newsletter the day before.

“This oversight was in no way intentional, and I want to take this opportunity to express my deepest regret for any disappointment or frustration it may have caused. The dedication and talent of everyone involved in Follies deserved to be celebrated and recognized, and I am truly sorry for failing to do so.”

As for the cast party, Southcott says her personal philosophy is that she doesn’t believe it was an appropriate way to spend donated money, and that in her experience with non-profits, she prefers to see most of the money returned to the organization.

She says she consulted with the board at the time. Because she is new in the job, she says, she hasn’t been making any significant decisions without consulting them first.

Moase says he doesn’t know if he will continue on the board of the Winds of Change. He says he believes the merger with the Astor is still worth pursuing.

“I really have to see how this meeting goes and see how the community feels. I have to admit, everything that’s been going on, it’s caught me off guard. I didn’t expect it and I’ve had trouble keeping up with everything that’s been going on.

“I don’t know what the sentiment is. I’m not even sure what people think of me as part of this because i’ve been working on this merger for so long. Nobody’s messaged me or has messaged me very little directly to confront me about any problems. I genuinely don’t know what direction we’re going, so I really have to see what happens at that meeting.”

The Winds of Change meeting is scheduled for Sat., April 20 at 1 p.m. at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com