The Truth
Well, it was bound to come out sooner or later. People were doing the math. I graduated in December. Beeki's set to graduate in May. It would seem time for a transition.
And so it is. The following is from today's Waco Tribune-Herald:
Saturday, January 24, 2009
By Carl Hoover
Tribune-Herald entertainment editor
The cancellation of this weekend’s performances of “Tuna Does Vegas” at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre not only caused a headache for ticket-holders and Hippodrome box office staff, but it took away the audience for Scott Baker’s big news.
Baker, executive director of the Waco Performing Arts Company, which manages the historic theater, wanted to announce he’ll be leaving the theater sometime this June and introduce his replacement, Kristi Humphreys.
The WPAC board approved the leadership transition plan in November, but Baker planned to announce it on opening night of the three-day “Tuna” run.
“I wanted our patrons to receive the information as it was intended: as a very positive development in the history of the theater,” he said Friday. “This is the first time we’ve planned a transition.”
Extensive costume damage suffered two weeks ago by the Austin-based “Tuna Does Vegas” company, however, forced cancellation of its Waco performances this weekend, nixing what the director felt would have been the ideal platform for his announcement.
Hap Nielsen, WPAC board president, said Baker’s decision to leave this summer was his own choice and not instigated by the board. At the same time, he said Hippodrome supporters who had befriended Baker and his wife Beki knew their departure was a possibility simply by looking at their calendars: Baker finished a master of divinity degree at Baylor’s Truett Seminary in December, while Beki will finish her master’s degree in theater this spring.
“I think we knew the handwriting was on the wall at some point in time,” he said.
Baker, 29, was hired on a part-time basis 3 1/2 years ago in the aftermath of a financial crisis that almost saw the Waco performing arts venue shut its doors. Weeks later, board members moved him to the full-time directorship. Under his leadership, the theater has increased its season ticket sales, expanded its audiences, paid off much of its debt and set plans for building improvements and expansion.
When Baker informed the board of his decision to leave in 2009, he recommended Humphreys, a 1999 Baylor graduate in music who recently returned to Waco with her husband Chris, as his replacement.
Humphreys, daughter of Robinson accountant Garland Rowan, has several years of experience as a professional actress, holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and a doctorate in humanities, both from the University of Texas at Dallas, and taught film and theater on a collegiate level in Dallas. She was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment.
Nielsen, on the executive committee that interviewed Humphreys for the position, said her mix of theater experience and business acumen plus her familiarity with Waco fit precisely what the board wanted in Baker’s replacement.
She’ll work with Baker this spring, a time in which the Waco theater has nine major stage productions on its schedule.
Baker’s post-Hippodrome plans aren’t set yet. He’s applied to a Stanford University doctoral program in theater, and if he’s not accepted, he and Beki are contemplating a move to Nashville to start a theater company, he said.
The doctoral program application, in fact, prompted Baker to notify the board of his plans back in November.
“The decision to make this transition had to be done before I applied,” he said.
Nielsen praised the theater director for his advance planning.
“What a class guy. He gave us plenty of time to handle a transition and he brought to us a person he thought could do the job,” he said.
You can find the original article here.
I'll keep you all posted as the weeks and months unfold, but for now it seems that Beeki and I will either be headed to California or Tennessee in a few months. I've loved my time here in Waco. I've taken to heart a lesson my father impressed upon me as a child: leave everything better than you found it. I hope that I've left Waco and the Waco Performing Arts Company better than I found them.
God bless you all and I'll be telling you about the upcoming moves as they unfold.
