Nan Charbonneau Exits, but Body Politic’s Drama Goes On
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While the battles raged, some board members feared to speak publicly (and still do), apparently because they were worried that Charbonneau would seek legal redress. Fueling the board’s debate were more than 30 pages of data collected by Body Politic board members and staffers–everything from past-due phone bills to company members’ resignation letters–supposedly documenting mismanagement on Charbonneau’s part. Her strongest supporters considered the charges trumped up, while opponents saw the documents as evidence that Charbonneau’s management was weakening an already vulnerable theater company. Some of the board members who finally came down against Charbonneau were swayed by a number of former employees who said they left because they no longer could work with her. Charbonneau did not return phone calls asking her to comment.
Let the history books note that Mary Marre was the producer who mounted the world premiere of Robert Steel’s opera/musical theater piece The Culture Counter for a mere $700. The first performances of Steel’s piece about the relationships between six markedly different Wicker Park residents will take place this weekend in conjunction with the Around the Coyote festival in Wicker Park, in a theater at 1309 N. Ashland that formerly belonged to the Polish Women’s Alliance. When Around the Coyote festival organizers informed Marre there was no money in the budget for her production expenses, she still managed to bring together a cast of six, two directors, a three-piece orchestra, and a set that includes rear-projected images. Would Marre do it all again for the thrill of presenting a world premiere? “That’s the $64,000 question,” she says. “Ask me in two months.”
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