Globe picks exec director

Louis G. Spisto, executive director of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony from 1987 to 1998 and of New York’s American Ballet Theatre for a stormy two years, now has the same position at Globe Theatres in San Diego.

Spisto resigned from ABT under pressure in 2001, after several staff resignations, rocky relations with some board members, and an ousted employee’s claim of sex and age discrimination. That was resolved in a settlement with ABT, the employee said. But during Spisto’s ABT years, income and touring weeks increased.

After his resignation, he moved to Los Angeles to set up shop as a consultant.

Globe consultants conducted “extensive research” into Spisto’s past, Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien said. “Lou divulged every bit of what went on [at ABT], with no sense of obfuscation.” The controversy “doesn’t say as much about Lou as it does about that organization, which has a history of dysfunctional situations with its leaders.”

Spisto was “clearly the front-runner” of 12 or 15 top candidates to replace interim executive director Garet Clark, O’Brien said. “He has the kind of vibrant personality and enthusiasm that the theater and community have always expected of me.” This was an important consideration because “The Full Monty” and “Hairspray” director O’Brien has been increasingly busy elsewhere, and “it’s very important to me that I not be made to feel guilty” when away. Although Spisto’s resume is filled with classical music and dance entries, he acted, directed and produced theater in college, graduate school and summer stock, Spisto said.

During Spisto’s Pacific Symphony tenure, he received credit for doubling the budget, erasing a deficit, creating an endowment, and presiding over the hiring of current musical director Carl St.Clair. Jim Medvitz, then the orchestra’s vice president of operations, said the group’s “survival and success during that time were due to his untiring efforts at building the board.”

Of his ABT years, Spisto said he believes that “the company benefited greatly from my tenure, and the facts attest to that. It was not only a great company, but it was a great learning experience for me that will benefit me in the future.”