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What's in a name? Controversy

Some volunteers feel slighted by Morristown theater's title change

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
BY MAURA McDERMOTT
Star-Ledger Staff

In 1994, Morristown's Community Theatre was so decrepit, the former cinema had mushrooms growing on its stage and icicles poking through its roof in winter.

Hundreds of volunteers worked on their hands and knees to restore the venue. Its name felt like a validation of their labor.

So when the theater announced last month it was changing its name to honor longtime supporter and board chairman Bud Mayo -- who has pledged $1.5 million to fund its ongoing expansion, due to be complete by September -- not everyone was pleased.

"The community made it what it is today," said Councilman Tim Jackson, who said he spent 400 hours helping prepare the long-neglected venue to host the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg. Giving it a new name to honor one person, he said, is "highly ungrateful."

The town council voted unanimously last week to oppose the name change.

For the 2007-08 season, the venue is known as the Community Theatre at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts. However, in future seasons the Community Theatre name will refer only to the expanded 1,200-seat auditorium, according to the venue.

The entire complex -- which also will include a small black-box theater, classrooms and office space -- will be known as the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts.

Mayo, a Mendham Township resident who has served on the board of trustees since 1994, said he has donated nearly $2 million and countless hours over the years.

"It's kind of like, no good deed goes unpunished sometimes," said Mayo, co-founder of Access Integrated Technologies, which helps cinemas make the switch from traditional film to digital. He was formerly chief executive of the Clearview Cinema Group. "I feel that it's really unfortunate that there has to be any level of controversy about this."

The board -- whose members are chosen by a nominating committee that does not include Mayo -- chose the new name, Mayo said. He insisted he doesn't care whether the venue bears his own name, but he is adamant that the new complex must be known as a center for the performing arts -- not just a community "We wanted to portray ourselves as we have become, as a much more regional theater, one that will compete with New Jersey PAC, and New York theaters," said Bob Mulholland, who chairs the nominating and major gifts committees.

The decision to offer naming rights to major donors was made after studying how other Morris County not-for-profits handle such matters, Mulholland said.

Allison Larena, the theater's executive director, said she felt the council's objections are simply a misunderstanding. The auditorium will always bear the community name, she said.

"I just don't think the council has enough information right now," she said. "Hopefully, this isn't going to discourage other philanthropists."

Councilman Dick Tighe said the name change itself could scare away donors, by making the venue seem like a monument to one man.

When the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation pledged $2.5 million in 2000, the foundation rejected the theater's offer to rename itself, Tighe said.

Besides, the community name has been good enough for Ray Charles, Willie Nelson and The Pretenders, not to mention Bill Cosby and George Carlin, Tighe argued.

"The community came and saved the Community Theatre and I think it's a beautiful thing, and I would be ashamed to see the name change," said Dana Foreman, who worked as a projectionist at the venue in the 1980s, when it was part of the Walter Reade chain of movie theaters.

"That building should not be named for any one individual when the whole community worked on putting it back together," Foreman said.

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