SALISBURY — The members of Piedmont Players Theatre showed faith in their leadership by defeating a vote to oust two board members and overwhelmingly passing a vote of full confidence in the board of directors on Tuesday.

The vote was part of a meeting that was called by a group of theater members who said that the unexpected firing of former Artistic Director Bradley Moore and the board’s handling of the aftermath had raised questions about its effectiveness and leadership.

The majority of the members disagreed with that statement, as evidenced by the large margin of victory shown in all of the votes. Votes to oust former President Taylor Hutchins and Board Member Corinne Mauldin were defeated 117 to 36 and and 113 to 31, acting President Edward Norvell said. A vote of full confidence was passed 111 to 22.

Norvell said that despite the voters showing confidence in the board’s leadership, this episode in the theater has clearly shown that there is a rift that the community needs to work to mend. He said that the board and the theater community needs to learn from this experience and figure out how to mend the divide that clearly exists.

“I’m not going to be doing any victory dances, because the community is still clearly divided. We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us,” said Norvell.

The private meeting began at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and Norvell presided as acting president and Catawba College professor David Pulliam sat in as the parliamentarian, meaning he sat in as an unbiased guide on how best to conduct the meeting.

Norvell said that because the meeting was for members only, he did not want to release the reasons given for the votes on Mauldin and Hutchins to respect the privacy of the theater members.