Smith Center for the Performing Arts lays off four employees
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts has laid off four of its 240 employees.
Myron Martin, the center’s president and CEO, said the Monday staff cuts included a receptionist and three front-of-house employees. Front-of-house operations include ticket sales and refreshments.
The center also shed about a dozen workers through attrition over the last year, Martin said.
Martin said the layoffs followed a 365-day assessment of operations at the center, which opened in March 2012 at a construction cost of $470 million.
“It’s not unlike a hotel-casino. You do want to staff up to make sure you cover all the bases. We may have even put a few extra people on just to make sure the patron experience was good,” Martin said. “You have overlap to make sure everything is covered and you’re doing things right when you open. We’ve learned there were positions we didn’t need. As with any business, it’s part of the natural evolution of going from opening success to operating success.”
Martin said no other layoffs are planned, and the center has already surpassed first-year subscription numbers for its Broadway Las Vegas Series, a package of eight shows starting at $207.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.
