The Grand names new executive director

Toe-tapping music fans at The Grand aren't the only ones shuffling these days.

The leadership of the 143-year-old Market Street theater will undergo a shake-up with its top two leaders, Stephen Bailey and Mark Fields, taking on new titles.

The announcement was made Tuesday at The Grand's annual year-end meeting of its board of directors and trustees.

Mark Fields will become The Grand's executive director, assuming control as the theater's primary leader, spearheading its day-to-day operations. He had been the theater's managing director.

Stephen Bailey, who has been executive director for the past eight years, will take on a newly formed position of managing director of programming.

The roles will officially transfer at the 38th annual Grand Gala Dec. 6 at The Grand and Hotel DuPont. The move was supported unanimously by The Grand's board of directors.

Both Fields and Bailey say the new titles formalize a transition that has been slowly occurring over time with each focusing on his strengths.

Bailey, who has more than 30 years experience in the music business as a program director, artist manager and tour manager, will now focus solely on booking acts for the theater using its $1.5 million programming budget. Fields, who had previously been executive director of the South Jersey Performing Arts Center in Camden, New Jersey, will manage the theater's budgets and other operational duties.

For First State music fans, The Grand's internal game of musical chairs should mean more of the high profile acts that The Grand has been able to attract since Fields and Bailey came on board in 2006, while maintaining the theater's brand.

Bailey's executive director responsibilities managing the facility's $4 million operating budget, overseeing marketing and presenting at community events took time away from booking big-name acts at the 1,208-seat theater, he says.

"Not returning a call within five minutes can be the difference between getting a big show or not," says Bailey, 58. "Those longstanding relationships that I have are always in need of massaging and re-invigorating and that is what I wasn't able to do. In this business, those relationships are the entire deal."

Fields, 54, adds, "I think we will have more major artists in the schedule next season than we had this season and I think that will continue to grow."

In the eight years with Bailey as executive director and Fields as managing director, The Grand has been able to draw bigger musical acts, in addition to its normally announced season of touring musicians, comedians and stage shows. It also hosts lots of local organizations, including the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, OperaDelaware and First State Ballet Theater.

Concerts by contemporary rock bands like The White Stripes and Wilco have lured younger rock fans to the 143-year-old theater during the duo's tenure, along with veteran entertainers like Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson, both of whom performed on Market Street this year. (Nelson still holds The Grand's sellout record for his 2012 show, which sold out in 32 minutes.)

Bailey says he will not receive a salary increase. He earns $150,000 a year. Fields' salary is still being discussed by the board. The pair began discussing changing roles four years ago, Bailey says.

"There was nothing external. There were no kinds of pressures," Bailey says. "This was solely a decision formulated by me."

Last year, The Grand cut a quarter of its staff in a historic restructuring effort. Other local arts organizations have reduced salaries and personnel and scaled back programming to operate within their means. After the belt-tightening, Francis "Skip" Pennella, chairman of The Grand's executive committee, announced the theater was on pace to sell $200,000 more in tickets than the original projection of $1.26 million this season.

William Montgomery, a member of The Grand's board of directors, says the administrative changes will reflect the duties each man has taken on over the years.

"There's been a steady evolution of the delegation of duties between the two of them and it's been pretty obvious," says Montgomery, the executive director of Delaware Zoological Society, who has been a board member throughout Bailey and Fields' time at The Grand.

In addition to The Grand's main stage, cutting-edge younger acts have been surfacing more frequently at the 300-person baby grand next door, including Firefly Music Festival alum like Hey Marseilles, The Apache Relay, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds and The Last Bison. Bailey has been using the baby grand and up-and-coming Firefly acts as a farm system of sorts, making investments in the bands with hopes they will return to The Grand if or when they break big.

Like Firefly's announcement last week that it was partnering with Goldenvoice, the founders of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bailey says he sees The Grand's changes as a beefing up of an already established and successful model.

"Why not think about the larger picture, double down on the programming, dig deeper, spend more time doing it and and see if that improves our fortunes even more," says Bailey, who first arrived at The Grand on a one-year contract to assess and evolve its programming before agreeing to become its full-time executive director.

During his administration, Bailey has also booked super-sized shows away from The Grand's Market Street headquarters, like concerts at Frawley Stadium. In 2009, Wilco and Conor Oberst performed there, a show that came two years after a successful Counting Crows/Live/Collective Soul triple-header. Bailey plans on pushing for more of outside-the-box, non-traditional programming, like the outdoors stadium shows, which are often possible due to partnerships with outside promoters.

Through agreements with national entertainment companies like AEG and Live Nation, along with South Jersey-based SLP Concerts and BRE Presents, Bailey has been able to book in-demand acts like Nelson, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, comedian Louis C.K., Third Eye Blind, Kevin and Joe Jonas, comedian Mike Birbiglia, Straight No Chaser and others in addition to its regularly scheduled season.

The more big acts The Grand is able to book, the more likely popular national acts will follow suit and consider performing in Wilmington -- a trend that has been in full swing ever since one of The Grand's biggest bookings, which brought Jack White and The White Stripes to Delaware in 2007.

At first, The Grand was not sure if its customers would spend more money for bigger acts. However, the highest priced seats usually are the first to sell out, even when the ticket prices soar far above the theater's normal range, like when the best seats for Bonnie Raitt sold for $125 each.

The higher ticket prices reflect a higher guarantee for the artist and usually means The Grand is taking a smaller cut. But the theater also gains the prestige of hosting a legendary name, along with new customers who might return again for another show.

"One of the things that we found is that if it's something people really want to see, they are willing to pay more to see it," Fields says. "You get to actually see their face in person instead of a jumbotron screen."

With more time to massage his longtime music industry contacts, including band managers, agents and concert promoters, Bailey is confident he can boost The Grand's overall schedule in the coming years.

"A cautious person would say don't expect that, but I wouldn't step down from the top slot if I couldn't find a real measurable benefit to the organization," he says. "We want more of the top-shelf acts. We do maybe three to five shows each year where your eyes bug out a little bit. Would I like to see eight to 12 of those? Absolutely."

-- Ryan Cormier, The News Journal. Facebook: @ryancormier. Twitter: @ryancormier. Instagram: @ryancormier. Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882 or mfishman@delawareonline.com.