The Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced Thursday that former tech executive Tyler Hokama has been appointed the company’s interim executive director, and at the same time announced a new fundraising goal to complete its 2023 season: $7.3 million.
The appointment and new fundraising goal are the latest developments in a year of turmoil at the Ashland theater company. In January, multiple “separations and furloughs” were announced, including executive director David Schmitz. At the time, artistic director Nataki Garrett took over as interim executive artistic director.
Garrett was relieved of that job in April, a week before “Rent” and “Romeo and Juliet,” a production Garrett directed, were set to start.
In the same release announcing Garrett’s change in position, the festival put out a call: They would need to raise $2.5 million to save the season.
By May, they were halfway to that goal, saying at that time that they hoped to raise $2.5 million by mid-July. Days later, Garrett stepped down as artistic director. Her final official day at the company was Wednesday.
Now, in a press release announcing Hokama as interim executive director, the festival said it needs to raise $7.3 million on top of the $2.7 million that’s already been raised as part of the initial campaign to finish the season.
“With the first critical phase of the fundraising campaign complete, the company is now focusing on reaching its annual fundraising and ticket sales goals by the end of the fiscal year on October 31,” the festival said in a press release Thursday. “This will mean raising an additional $7.3M, which will allow OSF to complete its season as planned.”
The release said fundraising and ticket sale goals for 2024 would be announced later this summer.
“We understand how important this moment is for OSF and we are deeply grateful for the tremendous amount of support that the community has shown us since launching the Show Must Go On campaign,” said Kamilah Long, interim director of development, in the release. “And as we all know, nonprofit theaters must always be fundraising, so the work continues so that, indeed, the shows can go on.”
Addressing the financial issues at the theater company will certainly fall to the new interim executive director.
According to the press release, Hokama spent nearly 10 years at Adobe, where he was “responsible for Mergers and Acquisitions integration.” At the festival, he will “be charged with leading the overall business and financial aspects of the organization.”
Hokama is a theater lover who retired to Ashland with his wife in 2016.
“I’m committed to OSF because it deserves to thrive,” he said in the release. “The organization has some of the most talented and dedicated people that I know.”
“However, OSF has grown up to be one of the largest regional theatres in the country without bringing along systems and processes to support it,” he continued. “We need to stabilize that so we can support our fundamental operations, as all businesses our size should. The other challenge is that we need to improve the business model so that it is viable for the long term.”
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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