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Shakespeare festival will open books Critic of `corporate mentality' will see financial records By CHRIS BRISTOL ASHLAND -- The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has announced it won't fight a court order requiring the nonprofit theater to turn over most of the financial records demanded by a dissident benefactor. In a written statement issued Tuesday, OSF board President Marty Lemke said the board decided not to appeal the ruling last month by Josephine County Judge Allan Coon because the tax-exempt festival "has nothing to hide" and doesn't want to set a bad precedent for other nonprofits. She said the board would immediately hand over three years worth of budgets and board minutes -- but not job and salary information -- demanded by Philip Lang, a longtime benefactor who has accused the festival's leadership of alienating the community and its core middle-class patrons in pursuit of corporate profits and respectability. Lemke said the job and salary information was not part of the court order. "We felt it was inappropriate to give (Lang) job classifications and pay ranges to protect the privacy of Festival company members," the statement said. "Judge Coon agreed with us." A festival spokeswoman did not return a telephone call seeking further comment. In his ruling, Coon concluded that Lang had a right to see the festival's books under Oregon law that governs nonprofit, tax-exempt membership corporations. He told the festival to produce the budget and board minutes but not the job and salary information -- unless such records were ever attached to board minutes. A psychotherapist whose doctoral dissertation involved an organizational study of the festival, Lang wants the records to reform what he calls the festival's growing "corporate mentality." The festival began in 1935 and has grown into a nationally recognized theater. In the past, Lang has accused the festival of being a "medieval kingdom" that achieves record profits at the expense of its mainly nonunion employees. He filed suit in July, shortly after a union drive narrowly failed. On Tuesday he said he plans to organize a committee to review the material. He said he would invite a member of the OSF board for input. "I commend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on finally acknowledging their responsibility to be accountable to their members and to the community," he said. Helped by the success of the Oscar-winning movie "Shakespeare in Love," the festival's 1999 season set records for attendance and revenue. The 2000 season is set to get under way Feb. 18 with a performance of the Bard's "Henry V." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA