Ex-Winnipeg Jewish Theatre head charged with theft, forgery

Michael Nathanson

WINNIPEG — After his abrupt dismissal last year, rumours swirled about the circumstances of Michael Nathanson’s departure from the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (WJT), and it now appears that there was substance to them.

Nathanson, 48, the former artistic director of the WJT who was fired in February 2014, was arrested March 27 and charged with theft and forgery. Several media outlets have reported that he stands accused of embezzling more than $85,000 from the 27-year-old theatre company. It was forced to shut down temporarily at the time of Nathanson’s firing due to a financial crunch whose details were unspecified.

As reported in The Canadian Jewish News at the time of his firing, Nathanson was hired as artistic director for the 2006-07 season, succeeding longtime artistic director Kayla Gordon who left to pursue other ventures in the theatre world. 

A former Winnipegger, Nathanson had been living in the United States, where he was trying to make it as a playwright, before being hired by the WJT.

He came aboard at an earlier low point in the WJT’s financial health. Over his first four seasons, the WJT enjoyed an artistic revitalization. Productions of Death of a Salesman in January 2008 and Lenin’s Embalmers in October 2010 were the two best-attended shows of the past decade.

In the spring of 2012, Nathanson and the WJT staged the ambitious and costly Angels in America: Millenium Approaches. While the production received much critical praise, it lost money, as did Perestroika, which kicked off the theatre’s 25th season the following fall.

Reports by both the Winnipeg Free Press and CBC News said that, according to police, Nathanson took advantage of his dual position as artistic director and general manager in charge of the theatre company’s finances to embezzle thousands of dollars and covered up the thefts by forging documents to make the company’s books look like they were in order. 

Nathanson, who has dual citizenship, left Winnipeg for Texas shortly after the thefts were brought to the attention of investigators early last year. 

In January, police issued a Manitoba-wide warrant for his arrest. He was arrested last Friday when he tried to return to the province.

Police told the Winnipeg Sun that he still has children in the city that he may have been returning to see.

He has been charged with theft over $5,000 and forgery and remains in custody.

The board of the WJT is declining to comment on the matter, said board vice-president Greg DiCresce, as the case is before the courts.

The WJT itself has bounced back from the setback. Last fall, it announced a new season under the direction of interim (and former) artistic director Gordon. 

Last December, the theatre company staged a very successful three-day run of A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, starring Jake Ehrenreich.

In May, the WJT will be staging the Canadian premiere of the New York hit play Bad Jews.

And last month, as reported in The CJN, the theatre hired Torontonian Ari Weinberg as its new artistic director.