NEW MAN IN BOSTON: Casey Soward has been tapped as president and CEO of Boch Center, Boston’s biggest independent theater group. Soward, 44, replaces Josiah Spaulding, Jr. who retired in May after 38 years at the Boch Center, which includes the Wang and Shubert theaters and is home to the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. (Dawn Kingston)
Casey Soward replaces the retiring Josiah Spaulding
Casey Soward starts in October as president and CEO of Boch Center, Boston’s biggest independent theater group, after spending about 10 years as executive director of The Cabot Performing Arts Center in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Soward, 44, replaces Josiah Spaulding, Jr. who retired in May after 38 years at the Boch Center, which includes the Wang and Shubert theaters and is home to the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.
While at Cabot, Soward led major renovations and expansions in programming and education initiatives. Prior to joining The Cabot, Soward was director of production and performance at the Boston University School of Music. Earlier in his career, Soward served as executive director of the New England Philharmonic and as the technical director of the Center for the Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. The Massachusetts native received his master’s degree in arts administration from Boston University and his bachelor’s degree in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music.
Soward spoke with VenuesNow about falling plaster, fundraising and the future.
VenuesNow: You grew up on Cape Cod, went to Berklee and BU, how does it feel being in Boston at the helm of the Boch Center?
Casey Soward: I’ve lived in and around Boston my whole life and my whole career. To be selected to succeed Joe and work with his talented team and to be able to steward these iconic theaters into their next chapter, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.
You come into the position with experience running an independent, nonprofit historic theater. The Cabot opened in 1920; what was that experience like?
When I think about my first days at The Cabot, it had been closed for two years and was in a terrible state of disrepair. The seats were from the 1967 World’s Fair and missing seat cushions. You couldn’t find a comfortable seat in the place. There was barely any air conditioning or heat. So, (it was) bring a blanket if you come in the winter and bring a fan if you come in the summer. The community was determined to save it. We began raising money to complete renovations and began to establish The Cabot as a destination for touring acts, which we have done successfully over the last 10 years.
Landmark venues face a lot of challenges. What were some of the things that needed to be addressed?
The issues with these historic buildings is everything from problems with fire escapes to one of our first shows, where we had bats in the theater. Tom Rush was playing and we had bats flying around. Plaster from the ceiling came off and landed in somebody’s beer. Thank God it landed in their beer and not on their head. We were really working at a deficit in the beginning, but you look at The Cabot today with more than $8 million in renovations, it’s a modernized performing arts center. That was all great preparation for the new role I’m taking on with the Boch Center.
The good news is that the Wang and Shubert Theatres have already been renovated. So, no bats or falling plaster.
We don’t have that, but trust me there’s going to be plenty to do. Joe and his team have done a fabulous job over the past four decades. The theaters are in incredible shape. Over the next couple of years, we are thinking about the future of these theaters and the different capital improvements that we’d like to make and different types of programming we want to do.
Seems like your experience in fundraising is going to be a useful job skill for the new position as well.
Certainly, when you are raising money for capital improvements, those are in many ways easier conversations to have with people than when you are asking for general operating support. The other area where I’ve really found success – and this has a lot to do with the younger generation of philanthropy – is this era of civic responsibility. Giving from the older generation, that’s now beginning to transfer to the younger generation. Most in my age bracket like to give to support causes. They care about the environment and sustainability. They are going to be important for us to focus on in areas of community engagement. They are the future of our board and our patron base.
How do you approach booking for a broader audience?
Boston is an incredibly diverse city. It has a very educated population. It’s a unique market. A fantastic market. We have a lot more venues here now than even five years ago and that has definitely changed the landscape. But even in spite of that, the Boch Center has had two incredible, record years. I give so much credit to the team for finding new programming areas to go into – things like Latin programming. Different groups that have not been traditionally represented on our stages are starting to be – which is much more reflective of our community.
With so many internal and external stakeholders, how would you describe your leadership style?
All of the success I’ve had in my career so far has been built on collaboration. My training as a musician, where I learned piano at a young age, then played in different ensembles as a brass player, and then Berklee, about producing music and making records. Everything you do in music is a collaboration, you are all working together toward a common goal to produce the best product possible. When you have the right people in the right positions and you empower those people to become leaders in the organization, your job is to remove barriers to their success. I’m the one who lives in the middle of it all, bringing all the stakeholders together around a common mission: to improve the lives of the people who come to our theaters and live in our local community.
