The following email was sent to me (Randy Bowser, director of "Metropolis" at Pentacle Theatre) and all of Pentacle's board members, announcing the final decision to not release the CD.

Within 48 hours, the official rejection letter came in the mail to me, stating a completely different reason for the CD being cancelled.

I have some bad — and final — news.

Pentacle Theatre will not be participating in the Metropolis CD in any fashion at any time.

I must be compleltely frank, I could not in good conscience ask the board to support a new proposal when the material on the Metropolis web site continues to be so derogatory, demeaning and detramental toward the board. I can't fathom how anyone could expect to garner support from an organization by attacking it.*

I am in the process of notifying Joe Brooks, Howard Watterberg, Creative Theatre Productions Corp. and Windsurf Music of this final decision.

My suggestion to you is to dub off colpies for the cast, work out your own arrangement with Joe Brooks and try to market the CD through local record stores. It's your project, you're free to do whatever your want with it. You just can't use the Pentacle Theatre name or logo.

I truly wish the outcome could have been better.

Dave Davis
President, Governing Board, Pentacle Theatre

I am sincerely perplexed over what I had published on this website up to this point which could have elicted this angry reaction. I had made several attempts to report everything I knew about the CD project, since so many people were asking me what the status was.

If my reporting and speculation became so irritating to the board, I humbly suggest that more candid communication with me would have avoided misunderstandings.

THE MAIN POINT about this email, however, is that up until the day I received it, the CD project was still being pursued, despite the earlier announcement that it was over. Specifics were never given to me, but I was being told by the board President himself that avenues were being pursued and that it was looking very promising.

This email sums up what had been conveyed to me from multiple sources for months: Personal displeasure with me was motivating at least some on the board to put an end to the CD project. Such personal issues should have nothing to do with the fate of a project involving 40 hard working Pentacle volunteers.

The suggestion in this email that I pursue selling the CD on my own, without Pentacle's logo, is not realistic. The board knew at this point that one singer still had not signed the required waiver, and more importantly, that the contract with author Brooks strictly forbids the sale of the CD outside Pentacle Theatre.

Please see the official rejection letter that came in the mail two days later.

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