Sneed: It certainly played a role. My wife and I do not want to move. We are actually staying in Boulder. So I was not looking anywhere else. I didn’t have my resume out all over the country. It was just that this one nearby opportunity came up, and if it hadn’t worked out, I would have kept up the good fight at CSF. But it is a factor. I have to say the chance to work across all the arts facilities was also a factor. I grew up in the theater, but I have always loved visual arts. My wife (Clare Henkel), as a costume designer for the theater, is a kind of visual artist herself. I have never been able to spend as much time in museums and symphonies and dance concerts as I would like. Now I get to, so that’s really exciting for me.
Moore: What do you think was your greatest accomplishment at Colorado Shakes, and do you think will you be remembered more for being an artist or for being a producer?
Sneed: I have a hard time separating the two because when an artistic director is running a company, it’s not appropriate to seek artistic glory on one’s own. Everything is about the institution. So I would like to think that the artistic decisions I made were not about making my projects look good; they were about making the company as a whole look good. But there are several things I am very proud of. I am proud of professionalizing the company. Of increasing the quality of actors to include people like John Hutton and Sam Gregory and Leslie O’Carroll and some of the other Denver Center actors. I am proud of starting a new-play program that is just barely getting off the ground. I am proud of our international connection. I am proud that our educational programs are reaching more schools and more kids.
Moore: How about “Women of Will”?
Sneed: Absolutely, “Women of Will,” because for the first time, we were involved with developing a project that’s playing in New York. True, it’s not Broadway … but not every play should be on Broadway.
Moore: What production during your tenure was most special to you personally?
Sneed: That’s really a tough one, but I think the “Romeo and Juliet” two years ago. I was so pleased with the cast, especially our leads, and the direction of it. In every way, I think we really served the play well, and people really responded to it.
Moore: What is your own assessment of your tenure in Boulder?
Sneed: I would say I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish. I like to think that I was moderately successfully at moving the company forward artistically and organizationally. But I also think I tried to do too much, because I didn’t understand the challenges and limitations. I didn’t understand the challenges in this marketplace, especially in a state university at a time that the university was being increasingly starved of funding. So it was simply not possible for us to be supported the way some universities can support arts organizations. Now, I want to say that (former Arts & Sciences dean Todd Gleeson and then successor Steve Leigh) did everything they possibly could. It was just a time when the university faced some massive cuts. Considering the circumstances, they could have cut us drastically, and they didn’t cut us at all, really.
Moore: You went through a three-year period from 2007-09 when the festival lost nearly $1 million and revenue was in a freefall. Was there ever a time when the university seriously considered killing the festival altogether?
Sneed: If those discussions were happening, I was not privy to them. I don’t believe they were happening. Nobody knows what the future holds, but I think there is a lot of good will toward the festival on campus, in (the College of Arts and Sciences), and in the university as a whole. And I know everybody working on the problem is trying to make the festival sustainable. I don’t think there is anything but well-meaning people doing their best to try to make it work.
Moore: If you could go back to Day 1 and have one do-over … what would it be?
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