A sort of social media pandemonium got underway Wednesday when Viswa Subbaraman announced he was resigning as the artistic director at Skylight Music Theatre.

A major part of the conversation was about replacing him with Jill Anna Ponasik, artistic director of the Milwaukee Opera Theatre and an artist who closely matches Subbaraman’s drive for creative and aggressive programming.

The suggestion was fueled by a blog post by Tom Strini, who now lives in Oregon but previously served as the respected performing arts critic for the Milwaukee Journal for decades. Strini wrote an open letter to the Skylight Board of Directors calling for them to have an emergency meeting, offer her a contract and get on with the work of staging performances.

Alec Fraser, the attorney at Michael, Best & Friedrich as well as president of the Skylight board, said that he appreciated the suggestion but wasn’t calling any emergency meetings.

"We will follow a process," he said Thursday morning. "We need to discharge our obligations seriously, and we’ll do that.

"I appreciate what Strini wrote, but there aren’t going to be emergency meetings. The board will meet in June, and we’ll decide how to proceed from there."

Fraser said he had never even met Ponasik but was "familiar with her work and she obviously has a similar outlook as Viswa.

"When we hired Viswa, we knew we were taking a risk," Fraser said. "We knew he was aggressive and would expand the kind of programming we do at Skylight. And we got just what we bargained for.

"I think he has taught us all, the entire community, how to look at musical theater on the stage in new ways. I knew, and the board knew, when we hired him that it would become difficult to keep him here. Now is the time to be thankful and to express our adulation for what he’s done here.

"Skylight offers a full range, from opera to musical theater, and we are unique in the country with that range. It’s a good reputation to have."

Fraser said his first step would be to form a board committee to conduct the search.

"We need to decide whether to hire a search firm or not," he said. "That depends on the talent pool. If we have to, we can use a search firm to expand the talent pool."

In recent years, Ponasik has taken the formerly moribund Milwaukee Opera Theatre to new heights with a series of interesting and unique productions, including an opera about a monkey, a production in a bookstore and the recent one-night only staging of "1776" featuring a wide array of Milwaukee all-stars.

This season, she directed a memorable production of "Tosca" at Skylight.

"I don’t even know if she’d be interested," Fraser said. "Once we get underway, we’d love to have her apply."

Ponasik did not return requests to speak with her about the level of interest she might have in the position.

One of the issues at play in the selection process is the grumbling from some subscribers over a few of the most daring productions under Subbaraman’s reign. It’s not a tsunami of complaints, by any means, but some people want Skylight to focus on more traditional musical theater.

The board, however, seems anxious to continue the adventurous style Subbaraman brought to Skylight.

Meanwhile, the next season is already set, with long-time artist Ray Jivoff functioning as the interim artistic director. Fraser said he would like the 2017-18 season to be chosen by a new person, but was confident that Jivoff and the board could program an exciting season if nobody is hired in time.