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With Pioneer Theatre Company’s managing director on leave over resumé questions, the company’s main fundraiser will take over for now

Christopher Massimine’s online profile had several credits that didn’t appear to be real.

(Francisco Kjolseth | Salt Lake Tribune file photo) Pioneer Theatre Company on the University of Utah campus.

A veteran fundraiser will temporarily take the reins of Pioneer Theatre Company’s operations while the current managing director is on leave.

Diane Parisi, who has been PTC’s development director since 1998, has been named the Salt Lake City theatrical company’s acting managing director. The change was noted on PTC’s website Tuesday, though the managing director, Christopher Massimine, is still listed in the staff directory.

Massimine took personal leave last week, amid news reports by The Salt Lake Tribune and Fox13 that items on his resumé that appeared to be fabricated or exaggerated.

Among the items found: A 2019 “humanitarian of the year” award from an organization that doesn’t appear to exist; listing credits on movies and video games that he did not work on; and claims of production credit to two Tony-nominated Broadway productions, when he was in lower-tier jobs with those shows.

Over the weekend, Massimine’s list of credits on the Internet Movie Database — which last week included nearly 100 movies, TV shows and video games on which Massimine supposedly worked — was scrubbed clean. IMDb has not responded to a request for comment on how that happened.

Massimine has not responded to requests for comment. PTC, which is an entity of the University of Utah’s College of Fine Arts, has directed inquiries to the university administration.

PTC’s board of directors is scheduled to have its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, and Massimine’s status is expected to be a prime topic of conversation.

Massimine was hired in February 2019 as PTC’s managing director, to succeed Chris Lino, who held the job for 28 years. Massimine boasted impressive credentials, notably as CEO of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, one of the oldest theater companies in New York — which, during his tenure, produced an acclaimed Yiddish translation of “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2018.

PTC’s 2021-2022 season is scheduled to start this fall, with the Sept. 10 debut of the Fats Waller musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” — the first performance on the Pioneer stage since the theater shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.