No one ever said running a small theater company was easy.

Last summer, TheatreFIRST founding artistic director Clive Chafer handed leadership of the company over to Dylan Russell and Allison Studdiford as artistic director and producing director respectively.

Last month, this passing of the baton was celebrated at a gala event at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes.

The story does not end there.

A press release sent out today stated that on Nov. 6, Russell and Studdiford resigned their positions. The release did not cite any reasons but did add that the TheatreFIRST Board of Directors “accepted their resignations with regret and wished them well in their future artistic endeavors.”

This leaves TheatreFIRST without a leader or a director for its spring production of Harold Pinter’s Old Times, so now the company is searching for both.

Inquiries about the position of artistic director should be sent to Christine Dover, Board President, at christinedover@aol.com; inquiries about the position of director for the spring production should be sent to Clive Chafer at clive@theatrefirst.com.