College and Ohio Light Opera Announce Plans for New Relationship

OLO to become independent not-for-profit, affiliated with college, by 2011

The College of Wooster and the Ohio Light Opera today announced plans to develop a new relationship between the two organizations. By 2011, OLO will become an independent not-for-profit arts organization, while maintaining its historic affiliation with the college. Details will be worked out over the next 24 months by a transition committee consisting of OLO’s executive director, Laura Neill; John W. Sell, professor of business economics at the college; and members of the OLO Advisory Board.

OLO, which this year celebrated its 31st summer festival season, will remain in Wooster, continue to perform at the college’s Freedlander Theatre, and continue to house its performers and support personnel on campus. Incorporating as an independent not-for-profit arts organization, however, will create a much more transparent relationship between the company and the college, and provide OLO with increased flexibility in its operations and fund-raising, including sponsorship opportunities. Like the change in management structure for the Wooster Inn earlier this year, the new arrangement will also permit the college to focus its efforts more tightly on its core educational mission.  

From an audience member’s perspective, OLO will look the same as it does now: same venue, same company, and the same repertoire that has made Wooster the country’s acknowledged mecca for operetta and lyric theatre.  

The Wooster community will continue to reap the benefits that the summer festival brings each year. An economic impact study conducted by students in the college’s Applied Mathematics Research Experience program in 2008 estimated that non-resident OLO attendees pour some $2 million into the Wayne County economy each summer.  

“OLO is such an important part of the Wooster community, both artistically and economically,” said Wooster President Grant Cornwell, “and this new arrangement will provide it with greater control of its own destiny. It will be good for OLO, good for the college, and good for the Wooster community.”  

Founded in 1979 as the resident professional company of The College of Wooster, the Ohio Light Opera is recognized today as America’s premiere venue for the production of operetta and early musical theatre.  

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored, independent research. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students.