The winter of 1978 was Hedgerow Theatre’s 55th Anniversary year. It was also the year that Susie Wefel, then a member of Actor’s Equity Association, arrived at the Hedgerow House doorstep. She had followed her mentor, master acting teacher Rose Shulman, to join the resident company of America’s first repertory theater.
Now 46 years later, 74-year-old Susie finds herself in a Blanche DuBois–level crisis: Hedgerow’s longest-serving company member is losing her home and her job in one fell swoop, following the decision of the Hedgerow board.
A similar fate befell fellow company member Adam Altman, a 42-year-old single father of two sons (Seamus, 9 and Lucious, 8). On June 7, 2019, the day after his wife, Kate McLenigan Altman, lost her battle with leukemia, Adam moved into the Hedgerow House as a company member with his two small sons in tow. As a member of the “core company”, he had been cast as Victor Prynne in Noel Coward’s Private Lives. The Hedgerow management wanted to give him space to grieve, but Altman’s response was, “No, I need something to occupy my mind. Feel useful. I’d rather get right into it.”
In 2021, Adam and his boys were told they must leave Hedgerow within a year; Susie was given three years. Adam’s family now live in Derry, Pennsylvania; Susie is still not sure where her future lies.
This is her story.
The Fire
Hedgerow itself is no stranger to loss. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, November 30, 1985, after a performance of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a fire tore through the performance space. As the New York Times reported: “The blaze destroyed the ceiling, seats, stage and lighting equipment.”
June Prager, the artistic director at the time, projected that the restoration would take five months. Instead it took five years. Susie and the small company that remained put on shows in the rehearsal room in the Hedgerow Farmhouse and lived upstairs, as they waited for the theater, half a mile up the road, to be rebuilt.
“Susie was the constant,” says Hedgerow veteran Jennifer Summerfield. “She was one of the five actors who stayed after the fire, kept the theater going, and helped it survive. She was the one who would drive the actors to all the children’s theater shows all over the tri-state area and had this incredible energy and belief in the theater.”
Prager resigned in 1987, and, without an artistic director at the helm, Susie joined forces with two other women, Janet Kelsey and Yvonne Vincic, to keep Hedgerow afloat.
The three were among many who came together to help Hedgerow survive this difficult period. Susie was put in change of Hedgerow House, “‘adulting’ in a house filled with college students,” remembers Gwen Armstrong-Barker, a member from February 1988 to September 1989. “Susie alone organized the rehearsal and cleaning and cooking schedules, purchasing all the food, and toiletries. From the bottom of my heart I believe that Hedgerow would not have continued to operate if she hadn’t been there living in the house and keeping things organized.”
“Poor and content is rich enough”?
Many former actors speak fondly of Hedgerow. Asking Adam and Susie about Hedgerow, they enthusiastically talk about the work they did on stage, in productions ranging from Chekhov to Coward, beaming with joy because their hearts belong to the theater. But I want to devote a space here to something that often gets swept under the rug when we talk about theater: Money.
According to Susie, she was asked to drop out of Actor’s Equity—the union protecting those who work in live theatrical performance—when she arrived in the late 1970s. Susie obliged because she adored Hedgerow.
Her financial reality as a company member was laid bare in an article published in Main Line Today in 2003: She received $150 a week from Hedgerow with room and board included (an increase from the $30 a week she received for at least her first twenty years at the theater). She worked 70-hour weeks joyfully, but with no savings, and no 401(k). The article includes a quote from Penelope Reed, Janet Kelsey’s daughter and Hedgerow’s artistic director from 1992 to 2017, promising to investigate the possibility of providing Susie with a pension.
Susie did receive a small inheritance in the early 1990s which she used to buy a Volvo. In 2008 she was able to buy a second pre-approved Volvo with the left-over inheritance. A car is a necessity in Rose Valley.
Otherwise, Susie’s financial situation has remained largely unchanged since 2003. Her pay has increased but her pension never materialized; she still has no 401(k) and no savings, and she is unprotected by the union. Her requests to rejoin Equity fell on deaf ears. Susie recalls bringing up her non-union status when Penny Reed, herself an Equity member, became artistic director in 1992. Penny’s son and eventually her husband were also Equity members. Susie remembers the response: “No, that would be financially tough on Hedgerow.”
Adam is a member of Actor’s Equity, so he received up to $500 a week plus room and board. More than Susie, but still a meager wage for a single father with two kids.
[Ed—In a follow up conversation in response to this article, Penny clarified with her own recollection: Hedgerow was willing to have Susie rejoin Equity, but it would have meant she couldn’t continue to appear in as many shows, participate in the children’s theater program, or find non-equity work at other theaters—sacrifices Susie was unwilling to make.]
Living Out Our Days Here
Susie was placed on the Hedgerow board shortly after the fire in 1985. A few years later she was made a member of the Hedgerow Foundation Board, a fundraising group which she believed gave her a portion of “ownership” in the company. At the time, she was surrounded by people who knew her worth: Her mentor Rose Shulman, Broadway general manager and Hedgerow board member Ralph Roseman and his wife Yvonne Vincic. Roseman passed away in 2005, Yvonne, in 2019.
During the height of Covid, Susie was removed from Hedgerow’s board after 35 years via a Zoom call. As she recalls, Ann Byun, the board president at the time, said: “We on the board think that you ought to roll off, you’d have a much better life.” This stripped Susie of protection and a voice.
Nevertheless, Susie fully expected to live out her days at Hedgerow. There was precedent.
Managing director Dolores Tanner was living at the Hedgerow House when she died in 1982 at the age of 71.
And Rose Shulman, Susie’s mentor, was 79 years old when she died of a heart attack, on the back porch of Hedgerow House on July 30, 1989. Gwen Armstrong-Barker breaks down Rose-duty: “The deal was when you moved in to the Hedgerow House, when you were on kitchen duty, you were making Rose Shulman’s lunch in her Golden years, taking it up to her room, and then you were cooking a separate dinner for Rose because she had high blood pressure and she had diabetes. Rose needed a separate special meal and we cooked it for her daily.”
So it is understandable that Susie believed she would exit the world the same way: taken care of at Hedgerow House as a valued member of the Hedgerow family.
“It’s what we do, or what we used to do anyhow,” says Susie.
“You must be gone from hence”
What changed? As Susie tells it, “Covid hit and Jared [Reed], who is Penny Reed’s son, decided he didn’t want to be in charge anymore, so he resigned.”
It was the middle of a pandemic. A bubble formed, consisting of six actors and Adam’s two little boys. At Hedgerow, resident company members were typically recent college graduates who stayed for one or two year “fellowships.” Susie and Adam were exceptions. “Adam and I were the ones who got the shaft,” Susie says.
New members came onto the board, which recruited a new artistic executive director, Marcie Bramucci, in July 2021. The board agreed unanimously to end the use of Hedgerow House as a housing facility for longterm employees and convert it into a space for shortterm artist stays—a strategic decision they hoped would ensure the theater’s continued success and growth. Susie and Adam found out the same day, August 13, 2021.
“I went first,” Adam explains. “We had just done a tour performance of Robin Hood, and Marcie told us, ‘Hey, you guys, we’re going to have a meeting one on one … and there will be a member of the board there for support.’”
“I immediately had a bad feeling about it,” Adam recalls. “But Susie was still optimistic. She thought that they probably wanted us to paint the house or something, ask us to leave for a couple of days, or perhaps fix this, that or the other, put some new windows in.”
In the meeting was Marcie and board member Barb Dyson, a retired HR executive. Adam took this as an ominous sign.
He was told that he was going to have a year or less, and at the end of that time he would have to be out and wouldn’t have a salary, job, or place to live.
Just like that, Adam’s career at Hedgerow was cut short. The theater would provide support during the transition, but he was denied the chance to set down professional roots there. He may be younger than Susie, but they both shared an ability to throw themselves headfirst into their work at Hedgerow.
His response was, “So I’m losing my home and my job and I’m a single parent of two kids.”
He was asked, “What do you think about that?”
“So this is the end of my theater career for the foreseeable future,” he said.
According to Adam, they were visibly surprised.
“You name me one other single parent who is making a living as an actor in Philadelphia,” he challenged them. “You can’t do it can ya? There’s a reason.”
“Barb had said in that room that our living at Hedgerow is dependent upon working there,” Adam remembers. “Marcie later amended the statement to ‘no, if you want to, you can still live here, if you want work somewhere else, get started on somewhere else, you can do that.’”
Adam pointed out that this is where he wanted to work, and that if the board planned on doing the same to Susie they were wrong to do it.
That is what the board planned to do.
Instead of ten or eleven months, Susie was given three years to vacate Hedgerow House. The theater offered to help her find outside employment and new housing during this time, but her options were more constrained than Adam’s.
Recently, Jennifer Summerfield took her to see a rental place on a tree-lined street in West Philadelphia―two rooms and a separate bath in a group house. It cost $1,000 a month. Susie receives $828 a month in Social Security benefits.
In 2023, Susie’s brother-in-law sent the board a letter asking to talk about a more dignified transition to late-life accommodation. The response, which I was shown, can best be described as a gruff refusal. (Hedgerow responds that “since 2021, we have consistently sought to discuss this further with Susie and have repeatedly attempted to help her secure housing (including income-based, affordable housing options). She has rebuffed these offers and asked us to stop offering this assistance.”)
On May 1, 2024, the Hedgerow board of directors cast Susan out on what is called “garden leave”—they removed all her responsibilities at Hedgerow but continued to pay her in full through August 31. Previously, Susie’s duties were gradually doled out to other Hedgerow staff, losses she felt robbed her of her dignity.
Even after three years, Susie felt blindsided by the final notice. As she tells it, Marcie approached her at a barbecue at Hedgerow and asked to see her in the office. She was given a letter formally telling her she had to vacate the house she had lived in and cared for since the winter of 1978. But the most gut-wrenching part to Susie was that it banished her from Hedgerow completely, forbidding her from working on the Hedgerow stage in any capacity:
Paragraph 8 of the letter reads: “No further association: You waive any future association, employment, contractual relationship, or any other relationship of any kind with any Release Party.”
And then Susie was asked to hand in the company’s credit card along with the keys to Hedgerow theater.
On September 4, Susie’s lawyer delivered a legal document from the Hedgerow administration stating if she stays past August 31 she is liable for a payment of $825 a month―just $3 a month less than her entire monthly income from Social Security.
The Response
The response to Susie’s final warning to leave was immediate. Reactions poured in on Facebook; Delco Culture Vultures published an editorial and a series of sympathetic reactions from readers; former company members set up a GoFundMe page that has raised over $16,000. (Donate here).
“Does Hedgerow have no obligation here?” asks Gwen Armstrong-Barker, a question echoed in much of the online response. “Susie was there for 45 years, providing unholy amounts of very inexpensive labor.”
“What happens to Susie when she leaves?” she asks the board to consider. “This is not the Hedgerow I spent time with, unless I am missing something I have not been told, it’s like ‘Wow’.
“I do not recognize this place. Losing the resident company. That made me sad, but I understood it. Residents are expensive. These are really hard times for theaters and I absolutely know the furniture needed to be sold. [Hedgerow sold a valuable custom-made staircase and table carved by artist Wharton Esherick in 2019.] It made me sad but I understood it. But this is a person here.
“Should we auction Susie off like the furniture to the Rose Valley community?” Armstrong-Barker asks, clearly upset by the situation. “There may be an assumption that relatives would step in. Now at 74 years old, what is Susie supposed to do for money? This is how someone ends up homeless.
“To those who may resent Susie because it is easy to assume that she has been playing for 45 years. She has not. A lot of what she did was labor. Years of driving vans, maintaining the theater, cooking meals, setting up schedules and keeping the Hedgerow House running, dealing with punk kids.
“Susie sacrificed a lot to work for Hedgerow, she did nothing but take care of everyone who passed through the doors of Hedgerow for years and now the million-dollar question is how do we take care of her?”
It’s a question others contemplate. In solidarity with Susie, Summerfield, a frequent presence on the Hedgerow stage, declared: “I never want to work at Hedgerow again if this is how they treat their most loyal, most steadfast employee. There is a line that you must draw.”
“It’s hard to know what their thought process is,” says Summerfield. “I don’t know because they’ve been so secretive about it. It would make a world of difference really if they had some public statement. If they are in financial straits and they are selling the farmhouse, just let people know that because people want Hedgerow to survive. The whole thing feels very Chekhovian.”
Summerfield can’t help but find strains of Three Sisters in this situation. She’s reminded of the first scene of the third act. It’s two in the morning and a fire is ablaze in a provincial garrison town. Within the mansion where the play is set, Natasha (the sister-in-law of the titular three sisters) tries to toss out an aged servant, Anfisa, while older sister Olga protests. Hedgerow’s 2019 production of the play starred Jennifer Summerfield as Olga, Adam Altman as her brother Andrei, and Marcie Bramucci as Natasha. Susie played Anfisa.
Though the company gave Susie three years to make other living arrangements, an accommodation which they think reflects their appreciation of her contributions and tenure, Summerfield finds the three-year timeline suspicious: “I feel like they knew the optics would be bad and they were gearing up for their hundredth anniversary celebration and so they kept her knowing she would be the main cheerleader during all of that, and that’s exactly what happened.”
She is clearly upset by Susie’s plight and forthright in her criticism. “Susie never said a bad word about them until recently, never got the word out that she was being discarded, and they manipulated that and really milked her for all that she was worth and now it’s like: Go to a nursing home, go to who cares where, go live with your sister like a Jane Austen character.”
Hedgerow’s board has largely refrained from commenting on Susie’s situation, which is now an ongoing legal dispute. “For several reasons—including our care and respect for individual employees—we would typically avoid discussing issues like this publicly,” they said in a statement given in response to this article. “But we feel compelled to share some limited information because much of what has been discussed on social media and elsewhere is either incorrect or incomplete.”
“As leaders responsible for maintaining Hedgerow’s health and viability for years to come, we have made necessary changes to our operations, and we have worked very hard to implement these changes with respect and care at every step of the way. We will continue to do that as we move forward with our long-planned changes to the theatre and Hedgerow House.”
Saying Goodbye to Hedgerow House
I was able to visit Susie in her tiny room on the second floor of the Hedgerow House. Susie is a direct line in the history of Hedgerow and you can’t help but feel it in this room. She points to her narrow bed which she has slept in for the last 40 years.
“This is Rose’s bed. We nursed her in her old age here, and when she passed I moved in here. I was able to change the mattress, but the bed was too heavy for me to move out through that narrow door so it’s still here.”
According to Susie, Rose Shulman was so renowned as an acting teacher in her day that when Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Regina in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s Little Foxes, directed by Austin Pendleton in 1981 on Broadway, Rose was there coaching Taylor.
Susie is living alone now in the vacant Hedgerow House, packing up her few possessions―clothes, books, ephemera―into boxes, getting ready to move. But where to? Susie does not know yet.
She must go.
But who is going to volunteer to help Susie pack?
—
Want to help?. Visit the GoFundMe page.
Thank you for this beautiful story about Susie. Hedgerow Theatre and their board will be the ultimate losers. I brought groups to the theater several times. That will not happen again. I also feel the direction they are taking the theater is not going to get people in the seats. Times are tough especially for theaters and I predict Hedgerow Theatre may have signaled their own demise.
As a former resident (1993-1995) I am appalled and saddened by this. It sure seems like the place is being run into the ground and Susie is clearly being disrespected. I wish I was in a position to help Susie and I mourn for the loss of the theater. My time there haunts my dreams.
Totally agree, Heather. “Run into the ground” seems to be what is happening..and that is heartbreaking. I have dreams about it too…and in every dream..there are extra rooms..that are not there. It is haunting in a way…..
What an inauspicious end to a theater I’ve volunteered for and that felt like a family for more than 15 years. It’s no longer recognizable. It’s a tragedy what they’ve done to that place. The upside though is that their Christmas Carol is really going to be on point this year. I hope it resonates with management.
This is a very powerfully written and poignant tale of a highly seasoned actor being shuffled out of her career and her dedication to a once-renowned theatre. The repercussions may be severe for doing such a thing to Ms. Wefel. All actors are vulnerable in this way, but to be discarded so callously like Susan has been is really unconscionable for the Hedgerow board to do this. Excellent and incisive article here by Jessica Foley, who deserves a valuable career as an Arts advocate, from this column alone. I hope this comes to fruition for her, and that Susan Wefel get justice for her dire predicament. We actors are, as Shakespeare says in another context, “but soldiers for the working day.” Ms. Wefel has fully proven her worth, and earned a dignified pension / retirement treatment here. The absence of this speaks volumes about Hedgerow theatre, alas.
Shame on Hedgerow. Shame. Many will no longer support Hedgerow.
Thank you for a wonderful article!! A great, sensitive study of the situation.
Bravo for a well written article that doesn’t sugar coat a sad situation. Hedgerow once stressed “good heart” as a key value. The board and current leaders have to done what they think best to move Hedgerow into the future. Time will tell if discarding “good heart” as a key value is a wise move.
This article fills in some missing pieces for me. As a former Hedgerow company member for many years and good friend of Susie’s, it’s far worse than I could have imagined. The lack of basic decency is what really stands out here. If they can’t value a vital part of Hedgerow’s history and legacy, what WILL they value? This is not how I could ever imagined Susan’s end with this company would be. No dignity, just cast her out without a care. Thank you for this article and casting some harsh light on this institution, which is literally a shell of its former self. Shameful.
Awful treatment of a loyal company member. Thanks for the article. I studied there with Rose Schulman 1969-73. Was part of the company that Rose, Dolores and Ralph excommunicated from the theatre. David Ralph was artistic director. We had successfully re-invigorated the audiences with musicals like The Fantasticks and A Funny thing happened on the way to the Forum .
OMG musicals!?! That was new to Hedgerow. No matter we had a solid company rebuilding audiences.
We reconfigured at Westtown and from that group emerged People’s Light& Theatre Co still going strong in Malvern.
I moved on and out of the area but Hedgerow always held a special place in my life. Never met Susie, but I mourn her treatment.
What ever happened to loyalty?!? I’m thinking the current leaders are looking at selling the properties and dividing the profits amongst themselves. Very tacky and I hope illegal so the leaders get a taste of punishment. I’m inSanta Barbara and am watching private properties being sold for big $$$ and turned into multiple lots or condos.
I saw this happen at the old Saul property across from the theatre. When I visited in 2019 I went up the driveway to see my ‘tower.’ I lived there while at Hedgerow in the water tower and then the pool house, which is no longer there. Houses built in its place. Ruined the estate for me.
I’ll stop venting. I wish Hedgerow would grow some cajones and find a way to keep Susie housed and safe and working on stage.
I’ve directed Susie and acted with her. She throws herself 110% into every role, whether it’s Albee or a children’s theatre piece. If you cut into Hedgerow, it would bleed Susan Wefel.
There are moral obligations that go beyond legal obligations. Hedgerow has lost its way, and it breaks my heart.
The consequences of such treatment toward Ms. Wefel should be significant. All actors face this kind of vulnerability, but the Hedgerow board’s cold dismissal of Susan seems especially heinous and truly unacceptable. I hope Susan finds justice in her unfortunate situation, as she has certainly earned a more respectful end to her career. The fact that she has been denied this reflects poorly on Hedgerow. It is my hope that this company reaps the karmic bankruptcy it has sewn. This is Hedgerow Theatre in name only. Let it then be rebuilt as the company it was and had always intended to be.
I was in the Hedgerow company when Susie arrived in 1978. We worked hard for our $30 a week and a bed to sleep in (we shared our rooms with someone else). Susie has worked hard – no doubt – these past years. The company always did everything, cooking, cleaning, painting sets, ushering, running lights and sound, on and on and on. No extra pay for extra hours worked. On call 24/7, essentially. She has dedicated her life to this hard work. It is shameful what is happening to her—the worst affront is demanding that she sign a paper that she agrees that she will never work at Hedgerow in any capacity again. What’s up with that? What’s the purpose of that? How much shame can this board bring on a highly respected institution in Rose Valley. I urge the board to come to an agreement with Susan that reflects some sort of humanity and reflects the loyalty she has given for 40+ years.
Awesome story by Jessica Foley. Solid journalism with all points of view that are available. When I first heard this news, I couldn’t believe it. I was a Board Member, Marketing Manager and Actor at Hedgerow before I moved to Pittsburgh in 2014. Susie Wefel lived and breathed all that made Hedgerow so special, following the “good heart” example that former Artistic Director Penelope Reed made the cornerstone of our work. Yes, Susie is a phenomenal actor, we all know that. I did three seasons of Ray Cooney summer farces—six shows a week for 7 or 8 weeks—and not until closing night would I stop laughing off-stage at her performance. Maybe this new regime should stop being so damn progressive and bring those farces and mysteries back, because we packed the theatre most nights and they helped Hedgerow weather less-popular shows. As America’s First Repertory Theatre, what happened to a scheduled season of shows? Now it’s all one-offs of odd-ball productions and annoying, almost daily social media posts?? TIME TO PONY UP FOR SUSIE!! Thank you Ariel and friends for your hard work on the GoFundMe effort. Please give what you can, and will someone please knock me off as Top Donor? I knocked off Penelope, so join the effort!! Susie is worth every penny.
As a former company member and resident fellow who knew Susie and the Hedgerow of a different era well (2006-2007), this story has lain heavy on my heart.
As a current working theatre artist, I can sympathize with the circumstances I imagine the new Hedgerow leadership is facing. It is no small thing to sustain a theatre company in the current clime, especially if a goal is to move towards greater artistry and professionalism.
At the same time, it is unconscionable to put someone, who has truly devoted the all of her entire adult life to Hedgerow Theatre, in the position she now seems to be facing in her later years. I’m not much interested in the haggling of minor details.
Hedgerow has always held a special place in my heart, and I would dearly love to return and create there again one day, but I too have experienced the uneasiness of unkept verbal promises and the murkiness that comes from semi-professionalism in my time there, even as I know everyone meant well in their own way. (And this is why we have an actors union— though it’s worth noting that if a performer leaves Equity to take non-union work, it is highly unlikely that they would be able to rejoin.)
There has to be a better way. People have always come first at Hedgerow. People have to come first even as we strive forward, if we are to strive forward in any way that matters.
I’ve enjoyed the productions at Hedgegrow theater , but can no longer support this organization. Besides my conscience, who could possibly have fun in a building knowing what terrible things the board did to a longstanding worker and resident? Hopefully I’ll be able to see the actors and productions at companies who have values that are in line with a kinder society. Farewell Hedhegrow, and I hope your organization gets better from within.
I took classes from Suzie for several years starting around 2004. She was my entre to the stage and I have been very active in community theater ever since.
We worked on scenes in those classes. The most meaningful one to me was from DEATH OF A SALESMAN. She played Linda to my Willie. Let me paraphrase some of Linda’s lines : “..a terrible thing is happening attention must be paid…a (person) who never worked a day in (her) life but for your benefit…is this her reward ?”
She has touched so many lives given so much to our community. She deserves better.
Shame on this new “leadership” to kick a women to the curb who has been working at well below minimum wage for 46 years doing whatever needed to be done. It adds to the ugliness that they slowly stripped her of her responsibilities and then when the time came to put her out on the street they told her she couldn’t come back around in any capacity ever like she was a problem or a threat. Theater is hard, low paying, 18 hour days. It only works if you have a theater family. She thought she did. I surely won’t be visiting this theater anytime soon.
To be clear, Hedgerow’s had a tremendous influence on me. I’m incredibly grateful for the experiences I’ve had there and for everything it taught me personally, professionally and artistically. But to lay it out plainly, this is how the current situation with Susan looks to an outsider:
Hedgerow House
1. Hedgerow House is not being sold, and the plan is to use it to temporarily house visiting actors.
2. Hedgerow House has six or seven bedrooms (depending on how the room behind the office is being used).
Susan
1. Susan is 74 years old
2. Susan’s social security is $828 a month
3. She has been a core member of Hedgerow for 45 years. During its darkest times after the fire, she was the only person (other than Rose, who has passed) who continuously stayed in the house.
4. In order to perform this service, she passed up opportunities to find employment that would have provided more stability in her later years.
The Situation
The points listed above are all the pertinent points I know about this situation. From this I can only conclude:
1. The current Hedgerow Board is willing to turn out a company member who dedicated her life to this institution because they simply must have six bedrooms for visiting actors and not five bedrooms.
2. The current Hedgerow Board is not concerned that Susan’s social security will not even remotely cover living expenses if she has to also pay rent.
So yes, from all this I’m concluding – I don’t recognize the place anymore. I would LOVE to be wrong about any or all of this; that this is just a misunderstanding and no one meant to put Susan’s health, safety and personal well being at risk after all she’s done because they simply must have one more bedroom available just in case a visiting actor wants it. I love Hedgerow very much, this is heartbreaking for me. I want to be wrong, but each new thing I hear makes it sound worse.
I grew up in a rural part of Suffolk in England. Most of the land around our village had been owned by one farming family for generations. Our neighbour, Fred, was a retired farm labourer, then in his seventies, who had worked on that farm since he was 16. He and his wife lived in a small house owned by the landowner – the same house they had raised their children in. On his retirement, the landowner granted him use of that house until he and his wife died. I’m certain there was no written agreement to this effect – it would have been the current landowner’s grandfather who first hired Fred sometime in the 1930s. It was just understood that, whether an individual or an organization, and irrespective of any changes in leadership, we should be good to our word and honour our promises.
Fred’s life was simple and he seemed very content – he had an incredible vegetable patch in his back garden, and he walked 3 miles into the village once a week to play lawn bowls. He had a deep, almost unintelligible Suffolk accent. When he was 80 his son took him on holiday to Spain – it was the first time he had left the county of Suffolk in his entire life. He died about 15 years ago, still living in that same house. He had lived a life of labour and loyalty, and had been compensated in the simplest but most important of ways – with gratitude and respect and security. Susan deserves the same.
Shame on the Hedgerow BOD.
They know darned well that there was an understanding of accommodation for life for Susie. $150/ week is not enough to build Social Security on. If she had received even minimum wage for her work over the years, at least her SS would have been bolstered enough to at least afford housing, but she can’t afford that. If she had received as pay, the amount of a rent at hedgerow and then turned that back for rental, again, she would have banked enough for a decent SS rate.
Original intentions of an earlier BOD have been corrupted by a new one.
And the room is there!?! This is greed, pure and simple. And it’s also bad business.
I will not be supporting Hedgerow again until this matter is resolved in Susie’s best interest.
#boycotthedgerow
To encourage a person to work at poverty wages without union protection for decades only to discard them at their most vulnerable when the arrangement is no longer convenient is appallingly exploitative. Nonprofits and arts organizations are notorious for squeezing their staff for labor they can’t properly pay for by appealing to their passion for the cause, but this is the most egregious case I’ve ever heard of.
This is shameful. Kicking out a woman who kept the theatre alive in its darkest days? Not a good look, Hedgerow.
This is a shocking and shortsighted decision by the theater. I’m appalled by their exploitative actions!
I spent a number of years working at Hedgerow. The place looked out for their own. They were there for me through thick or thin. Pay was never good. Benefits were none to speak of, but it was a family. We looked out for each other and we cheered each other on. When times were tough, we all pitched in. Even when paychecks had to come late or grocery runs had to be lighter than usual. We worked our butts off and rested with a beer around a bonfire behind the farmhouse afterwards. We cleaned the bathrooms, nearly fell through the floor of the barn while prop picking. We got chased by chickens, painted, moved file cabinets all over hells half acre, checked the leaks in the basement and laughed. The current situation is proof of a deliberate attempt by it’s current leader to murder the spirit of Good Heart, taxidermy it’s corpse and put it out for display like they actually believe and uphold the ideals the grounds were christened under. Land that was soaked in blood, sweat and tears of artists and students in pursuit of “Transforming lives through the art of Theater.” They pulled up the bush in front of the theatre’s front door where the ashes of countless actors past had been spread for their final resting place. I can only hope that the spirit that sustained the space through literal wars, fires and floods can wake again to fight this egregious heresy. Casting out the company in favor of friends of the Artistic Director and turning its back on the community that held it steady are sins that cannot be swept under the rug. Pretending the past didn’t happen is no way to look toward the future. It’s shallow, callous and cowardly. Theatre is based on it’s ability to show and teach empathy. They should be ashamed. You can’t claim to upholding a legacy when you’re burning it to the ground.
What an appalling way treat someone who essentially gave her life to the theater company.
In the 36 years we have admired and loved Susie as the “Spirit of Hedgerow”, we could never have imagined this truly “Nightmare Ending” to the limitless love and devotion she has showered upon Jasper Deeter’s glorious dream of Theatre in Rose Valley. A shameful thing has been brought about by some people drunk with power, and cold of heart. Our hearts are broken.
Hedgerow Theatre is what it is today BECAUSE of the work, the underpaid work, Susie did for you. And now it is time for you to do right by her.
I hope she, at least, sues them. Its breach of contract, but also? She was WORKING, often many hours, and never got paid more than $150.
That’s below minimum wage .
This whole thing is shockingly awful. She gave her whole entire adult life to that place. Was not paid a living wage. Has money or social security benefits to just go somewhere else. I don’t know who’s on this board at this time but they have a complete lack of respect, bordering on contempt for the deep, rich history of Hedgerow Theatre . Why in the world would you force Susan Wefel leave? In her golden years, no less? She *is* hedgerow. To know the theatre’s history and her history within its legacy and not have the moral fortitude to understand that you *owe* it to her to take care of her basic needs for the rest of her days is basically, evil. And honestly , as she wasn’t paid a living wage for any of her tenure, it should be illegal.
On a better note I think this article really captures the history of the theatre, and explaining how it has operated for so long, so those not d familiar with the lose things can really understand why this a tragedy and a total moral failing on the part of the board.
From Bianca , former student and intern 93 to 98
And to piggy back on what Harry said. When her mother died a dear friend of mine inherited the family house and the housekeeper, now older, that had worked for them since she was 14, all under the table. She continued to employ her even though times have changed and she didn’t need a full time house keeper. And When it came time for her to retire the family paid her monthly bills and gave her money each month equivalent to the social security she should have gotten if the income was reported. They did this until she passed away because that is what good and decent people do when they have a lifetime relationship with an employee and when the way they have paid them will ROB them of the financial security most have after retirement. And fwiw, this all happened in Rose Valley. This board needs to do way way way better by Susie.
I’m disgusted by this new leadership. Hedgerow has destroyed their legacy with this cruelty. Clearly good heart has left the building.
“It’s what we do, or what we used to do anyhow,” says Susie.”
This says it all. If Hedgerow is in DIRE financial straits and this is the only way to keep the theater afloat, then you need to let the public know.
Otherwise, I can only wish everyone behind this cold, unfeeling action the same mistreatment and casting aside in their old age.
As a former short time resident who lived in Hedgerow House with Susie, this is extremely distressing and upsetting. It is certainly not the place it was when Penny was leading the theater. I certainly hope that all works out well for Susie.
This is how we treat our greatest artists and teachers? Shame on Hedgerow. Yes, pony up for Susie!
This makes me so incredibly sad for a wonderful human and dedicated thespian!! Please!!! There has to be another way!!!
This article proves why actors are not journalists.
If there are facts you’d like to dispute this is an ideal venue in which to do so
I’m heartbroken for Susie. Hedgerow is her home for 45 years and you just kick her out? Not only that but tell her she can’t work there anymore? I don’t understand. Nobody can live on $800. a month but that doesn’t seem to concern you. Too bad for Susie is your motto after all she’s done for Hedgerow. I understand new leadership and bringing in ‘your people’ . What I don’t understand is not respecting the history of Hedgerow which includes Susie. You wouldn’t have Hedgerow theatre to work in if it wasn’t for the hard work of Susie and others who gave their lives to that place. Susie is a great asset to Hedgerow. Respect her and let her stay and work there as she has always done. Why would you want to get rid of someone so valuable to Hedgerow?
In the same shady way The University of the Arts pulled the plug, I suspect there is more going on with the board. That real estate is extremely valuable. If Susie were to get a piece of the proceeds from a sale…why that would come out of everyone else’s shares. They will take their money and run and claim that they had no choice but to sell due to the negative impact from the publicity about Susie. Watch for the sign…”Coming Soon—‘The Gardens At Hedgerow’. Luxury townhomes starting in the low 400’s”
Where are all the enlightened benefactors? What a disgrace…my sister still lives in Nether Providence. We are ready to help.
Today I was looking online for theatre shows during the holidays and I thought of the Hedgerow. I was surprised to see only one show and no upcoming shows. I looked through the website to see what was going on, and I didn’t see any familiar names; everything looked new, different. – not in a good way. I read the note to the community from the board , which was very strange. And then I remembered the actress who has been part of the Hedgerow Theatre since I was a little girl in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I looked up “Hedgerow Theatre actress Susan” , hoping it was not her that was negatively impacted by the curious post by the Hedgerow board. I was so wrong. As I started to look up more information on what was happening to Susan Wefel, I was shocked and saddened. Why couldn’t the board “grandfather” her in and allow her to continue doing her life’s work in the place she loves? This is so cruel. It’s really inhumane and ethically unacceptable. I loved the Hedgerow Theatre, but after this, I will never go to another show there and I’ll be putting this article on my social media so hopefully more people see Ms. Wefel’s situation and help.
I am beyond appalled at the treatment Susie has to endure. I have been going to Hedgerow for many years. I can’t even count the number of performances that I have seen which included Susie’s wit, humor, comedic timing and love of the art of acting. If she wasn’t in the show, I would see her giving out programs and helping in any way she could. This REMARKABLE woman IS Hedgerow. How can they do this to her?! I was truly sickened to hear that they won’t even let her perform any more. I will make sure to tell all of my friends NOT to support Hedgerow anymore. This is a true tragedy!