After more than a decade of a contentious relationship with the Board of Directors of Malibu Stage, former Artistic Director Charles Marowitz is threatening to sue the theater company after being dismissed last week, citing contract violations.
The unanimous decision to fire him was reached in a special board meeting, apparently triggered by what was seen as an impossible professional relationship that would never improve. Nevertheless, the announcement was made in as subdued a manner as possible, buried in a Nov. 12 press release about the past season and various changes on the board of directors.
Commenting on the action, Marowitz told The Malibu Times, “The facts of the case are that I have a contract in which my position as artistic director is renewed for another five years. The board has violated that contract and I am in the midst of organizing legal action against them for contract violation and wrongful dismissal, and I can’t really say much more than that.
“It was a maneuver that was essentially engineered by Jackie Bridgeman [president of the Malibu Stage Company] and a board essentially hand picked from her cronies. I was about to deliver a catalog of what I believe were Jackie Bridgeman’s infractions over the last six months, and this was her way of preempting that. They gave me absolutely no reason [for the action], but as a lot of people know, we’ve had very bad relations for a long time.” Marowitz did not detail those “infractions.”
As with other members of the Malibu Theater Company’s Board of Directors, Bridgeman declined to speak on the record about Marowitz’ dismissal, considering it a private matter. But the relationship has been reportedly tense from the beginning, when Marowitz, according to some board members, embarked on an adversarial relationship with his board that spawned endless rumors, some two-dozen board resignations and possibly more inches of newsprint than the Malibu community’s ongoing struggle with the California Coastal Commission.
Two years ago, after months of turmoil, allegations of Marowitz’s abusive behavior and rumors of misuse of company funds triggered mass resignations from the board. Bridgeman said, at that time, “[He did] nothing felonious or untoward. Marowitz is not dishonest. He may be impossible, but not dishonest. They [the board] were screaming because they hated him.”
Bridgeman, who matched a Malibu City Council $25,000 grant to the theater company in 1999 (part of some $60,000 she’s given the theater over the years), added at the time: “Charles is very talented but very volatile and very unrealistic. People not close to the theater world have trouble understanding that. I think he is also very unsophisticated in business dealings and that is the root of the problem.”
Marowitz, however, has his supporters. Many who have worked with him over the years consider him (to quote a departed board member) “very funny [and] very, very smart.”
Charles Marowitz, 68, was appointed artistic director by the Malibu Stage Company, “after nine years of making art and trouble in L.A.,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Born in New York, he made his reputation in London from the late 1950s until the early 1980s, co-directing with Peter Brook the Royal Shakespeare Experimental Group. He later founded the city’s top experimental venue, the Open Space Theater, of which he was the artistic director for 12 years.
Marowitz moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and worked as an often-admired director with the Los Angeles Theater Center, and as the last theater critic of the defunct Herald-Examiner. He has been a vociferous critic of Los Angeles’ theater establishment, particularly Gordon Davidson of the Mark Taper Forum. Over the years he has written numerous books and plays such as “Sherlock’s Last Case,” which went from L.A. to Broadway in 1987, but was panned by the New York Times’ critic, although it was favored by others.
A major problem, at least in the minds of some, is the fact that there have been so few productions in Malibu during the decade since Marowitz’ arrival, even allowing for the availability of only temporary stages before the company renovated the former Shepherd-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church as a 99-seat equity-waiver theater in 1995. This may be less Marowitz’ fault than the lack of production funds (Marowitz received no regular salary but was paid for his directorial work as it was required). In fact, until this year-officially billed as the company’s “inaugural” season-productions have been, for the most part, mostly staged readings by celebrities.
According to one board member, the company will be able to operate as well without a permanent artistic director as with one, hiring future directors as needed.