LIME KILN CO-FOUNDER DON BAKER RESIGNS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 20, 1993                   TAG: 9301200247
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAY TAYLOR CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
LIME KILN CO-FOUNDER DON BAKER RESIGNS
Don Baker, who co-founded Lexington's Lime Kiln Arts, has resigned as artistic director, effective immediately. Baker presided over its growth from a small, largely volunteer outdoor theater to a dramatic-arts company that tours the United States and hosts foreign troupes such as the Leningrad Clowns and musicians such as Mary-Chapin Carpenter. The executive committee of Lime Kiln's board of directors accepted the resignation "with regret," according to its one-sentence statement.
Though it has been rumored for weeks that Baker was fed up with Lime Kiln's board, he had little to say Tuesday about his leaving. "I'm really not prepared for this," he said. "I wish the organization well."
Baker read from his resignation letter: "I fought enormous battles in the last 10 years, won some and lost some, and I consider myself among the luckiest of men to have the support and confidence of so many people. Because I believed religiously that this organization could indeed change the world, or at least this part of it, those efforts were pure joy."
Baker wrote and directed several plays at Lime Kiln, including "Stonewall Country," which he created with nationally known folk singers Robin and Linda Williams.
Doug Harwood, who has worked as a publicity agent for Lime Kiln, played drums in some of its performances and is a friend of Baker's, said the breakup was not a happy one. "More than anybody, he put that place on the map," Harwood said. "He did most of the directing [and] acting in some major roles in a lot of shows.
"There were some critics who thought it was too much the Don Baker dog-and-pony show," Harwood said. "There were people who criticized him for being autocratic. But a theater director by nature is an autocratic job."
The group operates under a half-million-dollar budget, and, like other theater groups around the country, has had to tighten its belt during the current recession.
Pressure from the 35-member board of directors therefore focused somewhat on profits and broadening the theater's appeal, one source said. Increasingly the board had clashed with Baker over artistic direction.
Anne Cooke, the group's marketing director, said, "We will continue to produce works of the theater that reflect the indigenous culture of the Southern mountains.
"We do not intend to become a theater that represents, worthy as they may be, musicals and other plays that do not fit in with the mission statement, such as `My Fair Lady' and Gilbert and Sullivan."
Some saw the resignation as a de facto ouster by a board looking for more control. A year ago, a managing director was installed, and took some powers away from Baker. "There have been attempted coups before," Harwood said. "The politics of that place have always been absolutely byzantine."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB