Committee met yesterday to discuss the unfilled Producer role and other important issues, such as show dates and financial strategy. We also accepted the following resignations: Katherine Schill from her role as Company Coordinator, Megan Redwood from her role as Stage Manager, and Elizabeth McFaul from her role as Past Stage Manager. Amos Boratto has been removed from his role as FASS President, but will remain on the FASS Committee as a Member at Large. Since the meeting, Emily Crawford has resigned from her role as Director.

Over the course of the meeting, a number of concerns were addressed. Since the position of Producer opened in early summer, no one has stepped forward to take on the role. This is a position that is critical to the success of the show. At this time important production deadlines have passed, such as filling cameos, advertising at fall clubs day, calling for auditions, and sending posters to the FEDS poster run. The Committee discussed the feasibility of distributing the Producer’s tasks between Committee members, but Producer is a very work-intensive position and each Committee member already has a large number of responsibilities attached to their role.

Further, a number of other crucial creative and administrative roles also remain unfilled, such as Company Coordinator, Stage Manager, Director, Band Leader, and President. Currently, there are logistical issues that need to be addressed in the script before it can be considered castable, and without a Band Leader we do not have musical arrangements for the songs.

With less than three weeks to auditions, these challenges are very daunting. These unfilled roles cannot be covered by Committee alone. When most of these roles were initially filled, we received no other applicants and therefore have no leads on anyone in the company willing to step up and take on these positions. In the case of Producer, we received no leads after months of open calls and private inquiries. Despite advertising the open meeting, we did not get a large turnout of company members to help contribute to solutions and no one has volunteered their services for the production team.

The result of hours of deliberation was that we simply do not have the manpower required to put on a successful show this year. FASS has suffered from declining ticket sales and financial instability for a number of years and we do not want to bankrupt our company by pushing forward with a show that will likely be unsuccessful.
For this reason, Committee has decided to cancel the 2017 show run.

After years of financial decline, our current model for FASS is clearly not working. Our model for Committee does not work either, putting intense workloads on individuals until they burn out. Given the concerns voiced by the company at the AGM earlier this year, it is clear there are other issues with Committee and FASS’ structure that also need to be addressed.

We would like to take this year to rebuild and restructure so that FASS can continue in the 2017/2018 season stronger than ever. To this end, we will be hosting two general meetings in the new year for the company to voice questions, concerns, and ideas on how FASS should move forward to ensure its long-term success in the years to come. Once the meeting times and locations are confirmed we will let the company know.

This was not an easy decision for anyone and we appreciate your understanding as we move forward. If you have any questions, please email monica.l.pierce@live.ca or anyone else on FASS Committee.