Ethan McSweeny resigns as head of American Shakespeare Center in Stauton, Va.

“While the pandemic crisis metastasized this past fall, I increasingly found myself trying to conceive of an ASC that would enter 2021 tabula rasa,” he said in a statement, invoking a Latin phrase for clean slate. “ . . . It turns out that part of what became necessary to give the company a truly blank slate was to erase myself as well.”

The company, founded in 1988 and ultimately based in an Elizabethan-style Blackfriars Playhouse, in the Shenandoah Valley, had been experiencing many of the crisis conditions of other nonprofit arts organizations across the country. But ASC pursued a more aggressive route back to live performance, returning last summer with a “SafeStart” safety program and indoor and outdoor shows. That precipitated a confrontation with Actors’ Equity, the union for actors and stage managers, which barred its members from performing with ASC out of health concerns.

At the same time, dozens of members of the company, both actors and administrative staff, were drafting a list of objections to McSweeny’s leadership, which resulted in a 10-page “Save the ASC” letter to the ASC board of trustees in the fall. Some 52 full- and part-time workers, out of a staff of about 70 at the time covid-19 forced the theater to shutter last March, signed the letter. Several people with knowledge of the letter said the allegations revolved in part around a “toxic” work environment created by McSweeny and unacceptable treatment of some women and artists of color.

The ASC board retained a lawyer to investigate the accusations. In its announcement of McSweeney’s resignation, the company noted some of his successes, including the streaming arm he created, BlkFrsTV, one of the first in the nation to spotlight contemporary classical productions online. But the company did not address the investigation, which insiders said resulted in a report laying out arguments for and against McSweeny’s leadership.

McSweeny declined to comment on the letter or the investigation. In his statement, he said that he and the board “determined that within the financial constraints of the foreseeable future, ASC could still thrive without my leadership.”

“I will forever be proud of my association with ASC, and especially of our remarkable tenacity in the face of crisis,” he added.

As the pandemic forced a massive scaling back of the revenue-generating, year-round roster of performances in Staunton and in touring productions, the ASC budget was radically reduced, from $4.2 million in fiscal 2020 to $1.8 million in 2021. Despite some federal payroll assistance last year, the entire staff has been furloughed for January and February.

Rodney Young, chairman of the 20-member board of trustees, acknowledged in an interview that there was a need to improve trust within the company, in part because of the issues that have been raised over the past year about white supremacy in management across the industry.

“I think we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re committed as a company to addressing some of these macro concerns about the American theater,” Young said. “ . . . We are moving forward in terms of dealing with strife and turmoil, and all theater companies are experiencing the anxiety of the pandemic.”

To that end, Young said, ASC has engaged mediators from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

“We need to listen better and we need to communicate better,” he said, declining to comment directly on McSweeny’s tenure.

Replacing McSweeny on at least an interim basis will be four actor-managers who are familiar faces to Blackfriars audiences: Brandon Carter, John Harrell, Chris Johnston and Zoe Speas. Noting that he is an actor of color, Carter said the inclusive nature of this group signifies a sea change for ASC.

“I’m very excited about that and in the agency that not just the four of us have, but the whole company,” Carter said in a Zoom interview. “Now everybody has their tentacles in the room, and that’s how you build the theater.”

Because part of every year at ASC is devoted to what’s known as its “Renaissance Season” — when the actors put on a classical repertory without the guiding hand of a director — the company has experience in an actor-driven aesthetic. The plan is for a return in May or June, the company said, with “Macbeth” and “Henry V,” and, soon after, “All’s Well That Ends Well.” In an unsettling time for a theater with multiple challenges, that last title may prove ironic, or prophetic.