Former MTYP artistic director suing theatre for wrongful dismissal

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This article was published 02/09/2015 (3150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Leslee Silverman, former Manitoba Theatre for Young People artistic director, is suing the company she founded for wrongful dismissal.

In a statement of claim filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Silverman is seeking general damages, as well as $3,154 in vacation pay, $7,000 in directing fees and $82,000 in salary due her for a promised sabbatical year.

She also claims the company failed to provided reasonable notice of her termination.

“It breaks her heart to do this,” Silverman’s lawyer, William Gange, said Thursday. “She founded it and nurtured it and made it into this wonderful cultural organization.

“She is suing her baby. There’s no question about that, but she had no choice.”

The allegations have not been proven in court. No statement of defence has yet been filed.

Silverman was fired March 5, 2013, after serving as MTYP’s artistic director for 31 years. She learned she was being terminated when she was handed a two-page letter stating her open-ended contract would not be extended and she was no longer an employee. The letter provided no reason for her dismissal.

Gange said Silverman had previously been offered a new contract, for which he had made suggestions for changes that MTYP’s board would consider. Two weeks later, board president Gloria Koop announced Silverman’s termination.

Koop said at the time that the financially strapped organization had operated within the terms of Silverman’s contract.

Silverman’s ouster punctuated a financial crisis at The Forks-based theatre. It had been unable to meet payroll the previous month when an expected $100,000 from a foundation did not arrive. The board decided, Koop said, that MTYP had to change.

Gange said the two sides had been trying to work out a settlement but were unable to come to a resolution. The board’s position is that Silverman, who now lives in Vancouver, has received all the compensation to which she is entitled.

Silverman was considered a national leader in the development of theatre for young people in Canada; in 2011, she was awarded the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime artistic achievement.

She expressed sadness and bewilderment when the MTYP let her go.

“I don’t understand the treatment,” she told the Free Press at the time. “I am not privy to the reason I lost my job and I was not privy to why on earth I’m not allowed to say goodbye.”

MTYP officials have spoken about someday wanting to honour Silverman’s contribution to the theatre.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca