Dr. Phillips Center cuts execs, furloughs staff
The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will furlough half its full-time staff and all part-time employees beginning June 1.
The downtown arts center confirmed the news with a statement to the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday afternoon.
In addition, a spokeswoman said, two executive-level positions have been eliminated as moneysaving efforts in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision, because our colleagues are more than coworkers; they are our friends and people we care about deeply,” said spokeswoman Lorri Shaban. “We are providing additional resources and doing all we can to help them as they navigate the transition.”
The furloughs affect about 100 part-timers and 50 full-time workers. All departments at every level were impacted, Shaban said, with a focus on positions directly involved with staging shows and events at the center. The last performance at the center was a sold
out Josh Groban concert on March 11. The next planned show is by comedian Brian Regan — half a year later, on Sept. 11.
More than 45 shows have been postponed or rescheduled at the center. In addition, more than 30 events — ranging from a Harry Connick Jr. concert to local productions by Orlando Ballet and Opera Orlando to multiple touring Broadway shows — have been canceled.
During their furloughs, affected employees will continue to receive health, dental and vision benefits, Shaban said, and the center will pay the portion of employees’ insurance costs usually deducted from their paychecks.
At the top-management level, two positions have been eliminated. Joel Schwalbe, executive vice president of business services, and Barbara Drahl, vice president of marketing, have lost their jobs as part of a corporate “realignment,” Shaban confirmed. She said the restructuring was a direct result of the COVID-19 shutdown’s financial effects on the business.
“Entertainment and sports venues like ours were among the first businesses to be impacted,” Shaban said, “and by all accounts will be among the last to resume full operations.”
The duties of the two vice presidents will be absorbed by their teams, she said.
Salaries for all those in executive leadership roles, including president Kathy Ramsberger, were reduced in April as an early cost-cutting measure, said Shaban, who could not specify the size of the pay cuts.
The job eliminations and furloughs would have come sooner, she said, if not for the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
“We are grateful to have received one of the first loans provided for in the CARES Act, which gave us the ability to compensate all our part-time and fulltime staff throughout the past 11 weeks, from March 13 through May 31,” Shaban said.
Construction on the $606 million center has continued throughout the shutdown. The building’s final theater, Steinmetz Hall, is scheduled to open later this year. But there’s still no clear signal of when productions will resume or when the center’s furloughed employees will be able to return to work.
“We are actively engaged in discussions with local, state and industry leaders to determine how venues like ours fit into our region’s reopening strategy,” Shaban said. “We are committed to opening as swiftly and as safely as we can, when artists and shows begin to tour again and when our guests feel comfortable coming back to the arts center.”