During that year, Leigh Gerdine, who became the new president of Webster College, asked Homer E. Sayad to form a theatre corporation that would be independent of the college. The new board of directors, led by Homer Sayad, who remained as its president until 1974 when the theatre's finances stabilized, was determined to preserve, as nearly as possible, the cooperative arrangement between the theatre and the college. Company actors, directors and designers would continue as part-time faculty in the college's Conservatory of Theater Arts, and the theatre would be used several times a year for student productions. Students would work on stage crews, and would still be given opportunities to act in professional productions when suitable roles were available.
Theatre is the most collaborative of arts.
All the pieces were in place except the audience, so one of the first tasks of the new Loretto-Hilton Repertory Theatre was to get more people into seats. Doing so was a tricky business, because among the changes Walter Perner had recommended was closing the center bay, thereby reducing the size of the house from over 800 to under 500. In addition, Equity rules allowed a smaller theater to pay actors at a lower wage scale. Another economy was the reduction of the season from six plays to five. So the challenge was to fill a smaller house's shorter season with plays of broad appeal.