Oskar Eustis is stepping down as the Artistic Director of the Public Theater. And he’s going out with a bang, well, sort of.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/theater/oskar-eustis-public-theater.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
“The field is in a very tough moment. I think the American nonprofit theater movement is over. That doesn’t mean any individual theater is over. But every individual theater is having to make its own case and come up with its own business model. We’ve lost a lot of theaters, and we’re going to lose more. And most of the other theaters, whether they say it or not, will become more commercial.”
In the LA Times Oskar gets more Specific….
“The great pandemic pause, along with the racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the continued fracturing of a shared reality under President Trump, served to reveal how fragile that consensus was, Eustis said, and, “It’s not coming back.”
Consensus meaning a shared artistic vision in regional theaters…
I’m not quite sure how the insanity of living in a country governed by a madman has affected theater… if anything, it may have driven more people to attend.
But, the real question worth asking…and answering.. is how did the “racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder” affect theater to the point where the death knell of not for profit theater is tolling?
Most are blaming economics… labor costs, rent, lumber, unions, yada yada…but Oskar is injecting a sobering reality into the mix…part of which he’s responsible for.
So, it’s not the whole story. Here’s the rest of it…
Well, we all know this part… the great pandemic pause.
The truth is, the “racial reckoning” saga is equally, if not more, to blame for the collapse of regional theater.
And it started with this:
“We have watched you promote anti-blackness again and again. We see you. We have watched you say things like—I may be white, but I’m a woman. Or, I may be white, but I’m gay. As if oppression isn’t multi layered. We have watched you exploit us, shame us, diminish us, and exclude us. We see you. We have always seen you. And now you will see us … We will wrap the least privileged among us in protection, and fearlessly share our many truths. About theaters, executive leaders, critics, casting directors, agents, unions, commercial producers, universities, and training programs. You are all a part of this house of cards built on white fragility and supremacy. And this is a house that will not stand.”
A screed written anonymously during the pandemic, signed mostly by elite theater professionals from marginalized communities, whose mission… as you can see… was to burn the house down.
The house meaning theater. White theater.. white gay theater… white female theater. Just darned white. Like White American Theater. But, just white. Only white. Super duper white.
Of course, there’s no such thing as “White American Theater”. It doesn’t exist. It’s pretty shitty branding but it worked at the time by capitalizing on an unbearably tragic murder of an innocent black man and somehow making that about grievance in theater. When I first saw this screed I remember reading that Titus Burgess was complaining he didn’t have a humidifier in his dressing room… and evidently that was tied to racism.
It absolutely preyed on everyone’s heartfelt desire for justice though.
Anonymousish has succeeded in torching a lot of houses in the following years, although I’m not sure if the peeps who signed this manifesto , including Lin Manuel Miranda among many others, banked on it destroying most of theirs too.
The irony, and tragedy is they just didn’t have a plan to rebuild after they knocked the house down.
The chaos that has ensued after this “racial reckoning” is part ineptness, part Stockholm Syndrome, part isntthiscool, part Iwannajobtoo, part good wishes, part The Purge, part abject terror, but the smallest part was an honest, smart attempt to diversify theater.
And, like the Canadian wildfires, the smoke is still fresh.
I suppose now is the time for me to dive into my experience at The Public and with Oskar.
Oskar is a great guy, and he’s worth every penny of whatever salary he’s getting. He runs a multi-million dollar corporation.. and most CEOs at that level make what he does, or more.
Make no mistake, The Public is a corporation with a bottom line.
More than anything, that’s what Oskar has protected.. and continues to protect.
But, the slippery slope of protecting and nurturing art and artists.. especially writers and creators, is at times in direct conflict with…
Because reputation means money.
Success means money.
Controversy hurts your bottom line.
So, in the “Oskar’s Choice” of art and controversy, I was one of the kids.
In pre-war 2016 a show I created and nurtured for ten years was set to premier at The Public. It was based on a documentary about a group of mostly trans people living in the backwoods of Georgia.
It is a beautiful love story.
Anyway, the show was set to open in the Spring of 2016.. what a thrill to be at The Public.
The people there were all very nice and very smart and it was dreamy.
The show was announced a few months before as part of the upcoming season… and soon after:
An “Open Letter” written by “trans activists” who demanded the show be cancelled because supposedly everyone involved was not trans…
I still carry a folded up, kinda worn, 10 year old but heartfelt fuck you in my back pocket for Taylor Mac and all the signatories….
At the time, over the holidays in December, it looked like the show was indeed going to be cancelled.
There were meetings and emails and phone calls for several days.
Oskar finally said “it’s a beautiful show and I want to do it”
Wow. OK!
The plan was to push back the opening and have a Town Hall at the Public for the trans community on what would have been Opening Night.
OK, ok… we can have a dialogue and come to some understanding and all come to a better place.
Then I was called into the line producer’s office ..I thought to discuss strategy.
“We won’t allow you to speak at the Town Hall. You can attend, but you cannot speak. You’ll hear some horrible things about yourself. But you really can’t respond.”
At that same meeting she discussed my privilege… I wasn’t sure which variety she was referring to though.
I explained to her I thought privilege was transactional, and wished I’d said I’d trade mine for hers as she sat behind a nice desk at The Public.
Anyway, I took the hit. Art took the hit. In the bigger picture I believe the real war is about protecting artists and their property vs. siding with the thumb warriors.
Oskar caved to the social media crowd, which he would do several times again in the coming years.
It’s now September 14 2021… and the new theatrical Utopia is upon us
Flush with PPP loans and grants and government bailouts, theater was open!
But what theater goers soon realized was that the programming was …
Different.
There were signs in lobbies proclaiming they were about to enter a theater on stolen land.
Many of the shows were new, unknown works.
Much of the casting for recognizable shows was pushing the envelope, to be polite.
There were pre-show lectures about racism.
This blog of mine from a few years ago pretty much sums up the state of the art at the time. Please read it before we continue on our ride.
Audiences were not coming back, and not due to a lack of income.
They disliked the programming.
The group of Artistic Directors in major not for profits in the US is a very tight clique. Oskar is at the top, and it’s my educated guess that he had a hand in promoting and elevating a few with disastrous consequences.
The latest:
When this hit the press a couple of weeks ago, it seemed very short on details and struck me as odd. I knew there was more to this story.
And there sure was.
Hana Sharif took over as the Artistic Director of St Louis Rep a couple of years after I did “Follies” there in 2016. It was a lovely place to work ..and morphed into a major regional theater under the leadership of Steve Woolf.
Then things started to go Sideways
During Sharif’s tenure, ticket sales declined, as did enthusiasm for several shows. For every “Pride and Prejudice,” there were disappointments such as “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” “House of Joy” and “Side By Side By Sondheim,” where there was a visible exodus of audience members at intermission.
“Productions in the last four years have been erratic in their quality and entertainment value,” longtime subscriber Sibbitts said. “I can only imagine how difficult stepping into Steve Woolf’s shoes was for Hana Sharif. Hana may have been spot on with her vision for a more diverse theater experience, but maybe should have slowed down and let the audience catch up.
“There were also a few shows selected and presented that were not up to the caliber of The Rep,” Sibbitts continued. “Add to that having shows at three different venues and wanting to put on The Christmas Carol annually.”
Many longtime employees of The Rep either left on their own accord or were replaced during Sarif’s five-year span.
“Was there a vision for the production other than let’s slap-some-Sondheim tunes together? Reggie D. White, the new associate artistic director, took charge of this runaway train, which seems like an afterthought, and it never felt polished or had much pizzazz the entire runtime.”
It just gets worse from there….
So, Sharif leaves the Rep in 2023, in financial and artistic shambles and promptly gets hired as the Artistic Director of the Arena Stage in DC. That is utterly perplexing to me. Why on earth would anyone do that?
It didn’t take long for her to do the same thing to the Arena.. another theater I’ve had the pleasure of working in.
Groundhog Day…
“In three years under the stewardship of artistic director Hana S. Sharif, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater burned through five production managers, lost two of three commercial producing partners lined up for one season, and ran deficits that sources say totaled millions of dollars. Preview performances were canceled right and left, leaving patrons irritated. Costumes went unfinished, leaving actors feeling unmoored. The entire set for one tentpole production had to be “shopped out” to a Canadian builder weeks before opening because designs had been finalized so late.”
“The former program director recalled attending a staff meeting early in Sharif’s tenure in which an employee who was home with COVID participated remotely. “She grilled him for two hours about the budget like he was on the stand,” they recalled. “Two people in the room were tearing up because it was so aggressive. She was yelling at him and berating him … and he was so sick.”
“Multiple former employees mention crying or seeing others cry in the workplace. “People were in tears all the time,” the former program director shared. “You can’t work under that strain for long and not be affected.”
She had her defenders, the most prolific being her stalwart protege Reggie D White:
White acknowledged that he saw people leave meetings with Sharif in tears, but does not think it was right to blame her. “It’s not about her behavior; it’s about their ability to receive.”
Dear God, that’s just fucking crazy, and it’s like saying the dudes in the car with Aileen Wournos perhaps would have lived if they were just a tad more open to her demeanor. He’s now the Artistic Director of Wooly Mammoth in DC.
The questions I continue to have frequently since the manifesto are.. is this just a lack of expertise in theater management? Is it purposeful? Is it calculated? Is this a targeted attempt to blow up these theaters? How can someone be so cruel and nonchalant? How can anyone ignore the fiduciary responsibility for these truly rare opportunities ? Is this a gigunda fuck you with an agenda?
I don’t know the answers, maybe it’s a combo. But I guess it doesn’t really matter because the devastation is very real.
What do you want to do for your last two years?
“To fly that flag high of the value that a non-market-driven theater can offer to a city. And also demonstrate that the business model can work. Nobody gives a [expletive] if you fly values and you go bankrupt; you’re not an example of anything but failure. You’ve got to show that you can succeed with values.
Oskar’s response in the Times interview
Theater today is still a war zone..for many reasons.
When I saw the revival of “Cats” was closing, the first thing that popped up on Substack was “Fuck You White American Theater”
Theater rags were blaming the demise of the show on “audiences needing more education” about ballroom and “queer culture”.
But that’s just bullshit. If people want to pay a shitload of money to be “educated” they’d be better off taking a course on Babel to speak French.
The didactic push to “educate” audiences is part of the problem.
Theater is about inspiring, elevating, and provoking audiences. That’s how it works to change people’s lives through empathy. And expert craftsmanship.
The ownership of theater that the thumb warriors and many actors feel entitled to is really the overwhelming tragedy in theater today.
And I believe Oskar is just fucking tired of it.
I think it’s taken a toll on him.
I’m fucking tired of it too.
In reflecting on his amazing career, I wonder if he had to do anything over again, if Oskar would unequivocally stand up and support writers and composers and theater creators. Unapologetically at every turn.
Because nothing is gonna change until more people of power in theater do.
The fascinating thing I’ve seen in the last few weeks is the upcoming seasons for most influential and viable theaters are undeniably safe programming choices.
When theater reopened after Covid, that would have been the smart choice.
But, for the most part that wasn’t the case.
Now, it seems to be too late.
But, I do want to leave you with hope.
Hope for the future of theater.
There is hope.
Hope from Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R Jackson.
He is the lone voice in theater today to speak the truth..
I’m in the process of needlepointing his words on a pillow, OK I would if I was crafty…
I have largely been trying to protect my peace and sanity off social media for the last 7 months but there is something going on in the theater world at the moment that I feel absolutely incandescent with rage about and need to get off my chest.
Namely, as a musical theater writer, there are so many angry things I want to say about the response to the casting of Andrew Barth Feldman as Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending Musical on Broadway but there have been more than enough novel length social media posts, cry-bully open letters and histrionic town halls in the increasingly narcissistic theater “community” over the last five years to last one thousand lifetimes.
What I would like to offer is that while it’s easy to forget, Will Aronson and Hue Park are the sole authors of the musical Maybe Happy Ending. It is THEIR intellectual property, not anybody else’s. THEY get to make the show they want to make, not anybody else. They do not have to justify their artistic decisions to anybody but themselves and their collaborators. Whatever pain, trauma, or erasure anyone might feel about the history or legacy of the show, Will and Hue did NOT write Miss Saigon and even if they had, their artistic choices are their business and their business alone.
While artistic criticism and disagreements are more than fair game, the belief that other artists and “allies” out there have an actual voice in how Maybe Happy Ending runs its production is part of a corrupt groupthink trend that deserves to be roundly rejected and condemned in my view. The unabashed attempts to manipulate public sentiment with racial emotional blackmail is one of the darkest and vilest developments I’ve seen in theater in a long time. Particularly because it is only a few steps away from rhyming with the authoritarian and dare I say fascist “times like these” so many in theater claim to be so worried about and opposed to.
For that reason, I encourage everyone hopping (or considering hopping) on the bandwagon of this cause to take a long look in the mirror and ask if putting Will and Hue (who are first time musical writers on Broadway) and their cast and creative team through a bourgeois racial tribunal, and if undermining Andrew Barth Feldman, who is a member of the Broadway community in good standing is truly a hill worth dying on.
And while I do not subscribe to the tiresome ideology that “silence is violence,” I do know what it is like to be a lone voice of dissent against a bored and bloodthirsty social media mob and Reader, it does not feel good at all. So I would also encourage anyone who supports Will and Hue (and Maybe Happy Ending in general) to speak up because they are good people and artists who deserve your support. Especially against viral cry-bullying like this. Especially in times like these.
Robert DuSold 
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