Money Problems and Clashes With Staff: Inside Arena Stage Director’s Exit

Ahead of the December 2024 world premiere of “Death on the Nile,” an Agatha Christie adaptation by local playwright Ken Ludwig, Hana S. Sharif made a complicated request.

Sharif, the artistic director of the prestigious Arena Stage in D.C., asked her staff to build an intricate revolving mechanism called a “turtle” that would transform a steamship deck into swanky staterooms, like a reptile shedding its shell. Designs were due at the beginning of August so that staffers could begin sourcing materials and coming up with construction plans, but Sharif failed to submit them before leaving on a lengthy vacation. Instead, she returned in September with new, more expensive ideas, former staffers said, including switching from a more standard turntable set to a massive turtle.

“At every meeting, she would blow everything up and make changes to the design,” said a former staffer, who, like many of the people interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the end, the set was built at a Burlington, Ontario, scene shop and shipped across the U.S.-Canada border. Total costs for all scenic elements of “Death on the Nile” came to more than $500,000 — the original budget for the entire play, including actors’ salaries. The rush-job set arrived in a trailer unpainted and in pieces, forcing Arena to cancel a week of preview performances. Staff members were told Production Director Robert Hand was to blame; he subsequently left the theater during “Death on the Nile” rehearsals after accepting a job at Georgetown University.

The “Death on the Nile” saga in many ways epitomized Sharif’s tumultuous three-year tenure leading one of America’s first and largest regional theaters, which was marred by massive staff turnover and a multi-million dollar budget deficit that former employees say was caused by preventable cost overruns and inappropriate personal spending.

Sharif, whose appointment had been hailed as a landmark achievement for a Black woman in American theater, tendered her resignation late last month with two years left on her contract.

“Ultimately, the board and I arrived at a crossroads — one defined not by a lack of shared love for this institution, but by differing visions for how Arena Stage should meet the future,” Sharif wrote in a statement announcing her resignation.

Hana S. Sharif tendered her resignation late last month with two years left on her contract. (Cheshire Isaac)

Following an internal investigation this spring, the board had scheduled a meeting for last week and planned to vote on firing Sharif, multiple current and former employees of the theatre told NOTUS.

Arena Stage distributed a press release that gave no reason for Sharif’s departure and included no statements from her, the board or longtime executive producer Edgar Dobie, who remains in place and has assumed leadership of the theater.

Across the country, many arts leaders rallied around Sharif, with some implying that she resigned under pressure from a prejudiced board. “She is the only practicing Black Muslim woman leader of a major institution,” Emilya Cachapero, a co-executive director at Theatre Communications Group, a nonprofit umbrella organization where Sharif serves on the board, wrote on Facebook. “What has happened is actually a very simple and familiar story.”

The Public Theater, the venerable New York company where the musical “Hamilton” premiered, posted a statement last week that said: “Hana has a brilliant theatrical mind, [and] is a courageous and visionary leader.”

But in interviews with NOTUS, nine former employees painted a much different picture — saying Sharif resigned after repeatedly exceeding personal and production budgets, immense staff turnover stemming from a “nightmare” of a work environment, and staffers sending complaints of unethical conduct to Dobie, human resources, and the board.

Through a publicist, Sharif declined a request for an interview, and did not respond to a detailed list of questions. She instead shared a statement, saying in part:

“The standards of accountability I hold for myself have always been higher than those I’ve held for my teams,” she wrote, adding: “During my tenure, Arena Stage expanded opportunities for new artists, produced nine world premieres, welcomed tens of thousands of new audience members, strengthened community engagement, and helped position the theatre for its next chapter.”

Sharif added: “Our industry continues to grapple with how we recruit, support, and retain diverse artistic leadership. These are conversations worth having, well beyond my own experience, because our future depends on our ability to break open the barriers that keep us from reaching our full potential — to elevate our humanity, build bridges of connection, and transform our communities.”

The former employees, a racially diverse group that disputed the idea that race was a factor in her departure and instead described Sharif as lacking the experience necessary to run one of America’s largest nonprofit theaters, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they either signed nondisclosure agreements or because they fear retribution in a small industry.

“She is vindictive as hell,” one former employee said, adding that Sharif would frequently remind staffers she had the power to “ruin” their careers.

‘Three Years of Terror’

When Sharif was announced as Arena’s fourth artistic director in April 2023, current board Chair Catherine Guttman-McCabe hailed Sharif’s embrace of “Arena’s mission, vision and values.” Sharif, who came to Washington from the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, a much smaller organization, was tasked with replacing a legend: retiring Artistic Director Molly Smith, who had led Washington’s largest theater for 25 years, including a $130 million expansion project in Southwest D.C.

Under Sharif’s leadership, Guttman-McCabe promised, “Arena will soar to even greater heights.”

Sharif’s ambition and dedication to investing in new work was clear from the start. The two seasons she programmed at Arena featured nearly a dozen world premiere plays and musicals, including the recent premiere of “CrazySexyCool,” a musical featuring the music of ’90s hip-hop stalwarts TLC.

But her tenure would similarly be defined by clashes with staff, which resulted in a level of turnover outside the norm for the theater world. Arena Stage, which employs roughly 110 people full time, saw more than 70 staffers head for the exit doors while Sharif was in charge, and fewer than three dozen from Smith’s tenure remain.

Turnover is often expected when any large nonprofit welcomes a new leader, but what happened at Arena Stage was “chaos,” said one employee fired in 2025.

“It was three years of terror,” said another who left in 2024 and remains in touch with colleagues.

More than a dozen department heads stepped down or were fired, including many who were called into sudden meetings, let go without cause and forced to sign NDAs in order to receive severance.

“I witnessed her do it over and over again. She would go cold on a person. There was no logic to it,” one fired employee said of Sharif’s management style. “People would be iced out.”

In March, more than 85% of backstage workers at Arena voted to join the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The vote followed a period of increased frustration in which workers said Sharif consistently missed production deadlines and then required staffers to work long hours. One former supervisor recalled Sharif scolding the production staff after midnight and ordering the crew to return by 5 a.m. — a clear violation of Arena’s employee handbook and the crew contract.

Employees would be told, “Hana says if you can’t do it, she will get someone who can,” another former staffer said. “There was a constant threat that if you can’t do something impossible, you will get fired.”

‘Expensive Tastes’

Cost overruns like the sets for “Death on the Nile” were common during Sharif’s time leading the theater, former staffers said. But that wasn’t the only money issue that surfaced in recent years.

Sharif’s personal spending also routinely exceeded budgets, multiple staffers with access to her credit card statements said. One employee saw Sharif send an assistant to buy groceries along with her lunch with an Arena credit card. The artistic director would bill the theater for two-person lunches that cost in the hundreds, booked extended work trips at luxury hotels and opted for Ubers while her own Porsche sat in the Arena Stage garage.

“She had very expensive tastes,” a former staffer said.

When Arena needed flowers for a series of post-show events, the artistic director hired her own sister as floral designer, multiple employees said, even though her sister is not a professional florist and staff had presented Sharif with cheaper options.

“There was definitely a sense that money was no object when it came to Hana’s personal budget, and we would find a way to fund whatever she wanted,” a former staff member said.

Multiple staffers also acknowledged, however, that Arena Stage had no written policy to delineate personal versus business expenses for senior staff. “It just wasn’t something we ever needed because Molly [Smith] would never do that,” a former staff member said.

According to public tax documents, which require nonprofits to report their highest salaries, Sharif and Dobie ranked among America’s highest paid regional theater leaders. Sharif was paid $466,821 during fiscal year 2025, and Dobie $546,583 for running the business side of the theater. Dobie declined to comment through a theater spokesperson.

The theater posted a $1.8 million deficit, according to the 990 tax forms, but multiple employees said the number was more like $4 million before administrators moved money around to reduce the damage.

Meanwhile, rank-and-file employees did not receive cost-of-living increases under Sharif, staffers said.

The most recent season was more successful, including a refurbished production of the musical “Damn Yankees,” directed by Sergio Trujillo and booked to open on Broadway in 2027. But departures continued, and more employees began trying to reach board members with their concerns.

For example, Josh Bickford, a 13-year contracted teaching artist with Arena, sent board Chair Guttman-McCabe an email in June 2024 requesting a meeting after Sharif abruptly fired two education staffers. Bickford had been asked to replace them, he told NOTUS in an interview.

“I’m not sure how much the board of trustees is aware of the massive upheaval that has occurred,” Bickford wrote in his email.

Instead of receiving a reply from the board, Bickford heard from a contracted human resources staffer. (Arena went years without in-house human resources.) In a statement to NOTUS, an Arena Stage spokesperson said that Bickford’s email to the chair was “reviewed and escalated.”

Guttman-McCabe declined to comment. Multiple current and former board members did not respond to emails and phone calls from NOTUS. It’s not clear how much they knew, and when. But in early 2026, multiple employees heard that an outgoing staffer sent Dobie and human resources more than 20 pages of screengrabs and other evidence documenting Sharif’s alleged inappropriate and unethical behavior. That prompted an internal investigation, former employees said.

Emil Kang, a New York-based arts leadership consultant who serves on the National Council on the Arts, said that regardless of whether Sharif deserved to be pushed out, the Arena Stage board should have stepped in much sooner with guidance and policies that could have prevented such tumult.

“Staff departures after a long tenure is normal, and plenty of it is healthy,” Kang wrote in an email to NOTUS. But two-thirds of the staff leaving is “a large number,” Kang added. “Something real happened. The question is what drove it, and only the board can really answer that,” said Kang. “So far it’s said close to nothing.”

In addition to those expressing support for Sharif online following her resignation, there were several members of the local theater community who described her departure as a necessary step to protect a treasured local arts institution. Chris Murk, a staff accountant who has worked at the theater since 2015, urged caution for those hailing Sharif as a much maligned trailblazer.

“If anyone reads something online, please consider the staff who work here,” Murk wrote in a social media post. “We know what went on. Before you pass a quick judgment, I beg you to look around and check in on the people who had to weather this storm.”

“It was hell to be there — people packing up boxes in tears every other day,” a former staff member said. “It was an abusive work environment on every level.”