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Nelson's Capitol Theatre announces change at the top

Nelson's Capitol Theatre announced that Stephanie Fischer will be their new interim executive director.
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Nelson's Capitol Theatre announces changes with their executive director position.

The executive director position at the Capitol Theatre is changing hands after the board of directors announced on Tuesday that Stephanie Fischer will temporarily take the job.

“Former executive director Neil Harrower’s employment contract ended May 17,” board chair Martin Oets said in a press release. “[Harrower] did terrific work for the theatre over the past seven years and we wish him the best in his new endeavours.”

Oets added in an interview on Tuesday that the decision to not renew Harrower’s contract was mutual.

“It was just prudent,” said Oets. “In terms of recruiting an executive director you are looking for a particular basket of skills which includes a lot of creativity and administrative skills. We just wanted to make that the job design is correct and can we change things around supposing someone isn’t particularly good at financial management, how do we work around that?”

The board acknowledged that they had been lucky with both past executive directors that both had strong skill sets.

Before the Capitol hires a new executive director they are planning on conducting a review of the theatre.

“Harrower did a good job of balancing the budget every year so finances aren’t driving our decision,” said Oets.

He added that now is a good opportunity to review operations and that Fischer’s skills and experience will keep things running smoothly until they permanently hire a new director.

“We get busy in September, so ideally we would like to have the review done quickly, and start the recruiting process because it can often take up to three months to hire somebody,” said Oets.

The Capitol Theatre will also be celebrating its 85th birthday this fall.