Mad Cow Theatre adds staff, expands leadership structure
Mad Cow Theatre, under fire to revamp its leadership, on Thursday announced a new organizational structure and several new hires.
The staffing changes, as indicated in an Orlando Sentinel interview earlier this month, were in the works before Central Florida Entertainment Advocacy, or CFEA, publicly called for executive director Mitzi Maxwell and the theater’s board of directors to step down.
The Mad Cow news release did not mention CFEA’s demands but stated the new structure “promises to broaden expertise, decision making, fundraising and accountability on the highest staff levels. This is the significant step in a larger strategy to foster leadership, succession planning and continual staff development.”
New positions and hires announced by the downtown Orlando theater include:
Scott Innis will serve as director of administration, overseeing financial matters, human resources and other administrative duties. Innis has an MBA from the University of Central Florida and 25 years of entertainment-management experience at Disney.
Monica Long Tamborello, an actor, and director and teaching artist for more than 20 years, will be the theater’s director of education and social justice, with a goal of creating “empathy with learners of all ages,” the theater said. Jennifer Coe will report to her as a resident teaching artist.
Paul Bedford will be director of production and facilities. Bedford has worked nearly three decades in entertainment and convention management and brings technical experience from Disney and off-Broadway.
Finally, Tony Simotes — a frequent play director at the theater — has the new title of director of creative development
and will provide artistic and creative leadership. He is a founding member and former artistic director and president of Shakespeare and Company theater in Massachusetts.
Without acknowledging its history of struggling to pay performers and other workers on time, the theater stressed how it has focused on creating jobs in artistic production worth nearly half a million dollars per year.
“However, an expansion of executive staff is critical for the organization’s future,” the Mad Cow statement said.
According to its announcement, Mad Cow also plans to staff several other new positions, including a director of marketing, two resident stage managers and, significantly, a consultant on diversity, equity and inclusion issues.
Although CFEA’s call to action was triggered by fresh complaints of nonpayment by the theater, leaders of the advocacy organization said the problems at Mad Cow run deeper than financial concerns.
They specifically castigated the theater for lacking diverse leadership, mishandling relationships so the venue wasn’t welcoming to people of color, and misrepresenting the contributions of Black performers and behindthe-scenes workers.
Mad Cow’s announcement said the diversity consulting job would lead to an ongoing position and encouraged nonwhite applicants for the positions still available.
“In an effort to diversify our staff, we strongly encourage candidates who have been traditionally underrepresented in administrative and leadership positions to apply,” the news release said.
In its public statement, CFEA had called for its demands — including an external investigation into the theater’s finances and operations — to be addressed within 60-90 days; a meeting between leaders of both organizations is being planned.
“The long period of quarantine gave us the much-needed time we have long craved to look at the big picture and do significant planning for the future,” wrote Maxwell in the announcement. “It has been obvious that we needed to broaden our leadership and expand our expertise to keep our ‘pasture’ flourishing. This expansion of leadership will do that.”