After the story was reported on The Daily Page last week, Strollers president John Varda and his wife, Andrea, resigned. Karen Moeller also resigned from the theater troupe's board. Leo Cooper's return to Strollers "occurred automatically as a result of my resignation," says John Varda. Due to the nature of Cooper's former board office as past-president, the organization's bylaws apparently allow for this action.
Actor Liz Angle was present when Cooper met with the Noises Off cast after its Jan. 31 performance. She says, "They [the Coopers] have treated their actors unfairly and were verbally abusive." She describes her experience as being "personally attacked." However, she adds that Strollers as an organization has "always been good to me, and they have an amazing group of directors, designers, producers and actors."
Cooper's wife, Lee Ann, serves as the managing director of the Bartell Theatre. Some observers feel this is a conflict of interest, given that Strollers Theatre is one of the Bartell's six member companies. Following the Jan. 31 argument, Lee Ann defended Leo's actions using the Bartell e-mail account.
Doug Holtz, former president of Bartell member During the Jan. 31 argument, Leo Cooper complained to director Jewell Fitzgerald so loudly that it disrupted a Mercury performance also being held in the Bartell. "It was so loud that people downstairs heard it, and there was another show going on," says Bartell president Sarah Whelan-Blake. "Everyone involved called me." What began perhaps as just a personality conflict quickly escalated. Former attorney and Mercury board member Alan Hart announced plans to file a "formal grievance" against Leo Cooper. Current Mercury president Bonnie Balke says of the noise dispute, "The matter is still under investigation," and no internal Bartell grievance is so far pending. The Coopers say that there was nothing inappropriate in Lee Ann's using the Bartell e-mail account to conduct Strollers business, and that Lee Ann was merely doing personal work during her lunch time. They spoke about the controversy Friday, Feb. 8, but had nothing to say on the record. In response to the article, they said that their public home number as listed in the phone book and on a website for local theater,