Abstract

On July 8, 2016, Profiles Theatre, one of the hundreds of storefront theatres in Chicago, would come to the forefront of the theatre world after it was exposed in the Chicago Reader for its despicable and unethical treatment of the people who worked under the artistic direction of Darrell W. Cox (Levitt & Piatt 2016). That treatment sparked the Not In Our House Movement, which created a set of guidelines and a pledge of morally ethical theatrical practices on and off stage. That contract since its creation has been signed by hundreds of working professionals in the Chicago Theatre Community (Fisher & Meyers 2017). In early January 2018, two theatres in completely different parts of the country had their respective artistic directors resign after allegations of verbal and sexual misconduct (Tran 2018). Most recently, Michael Halberstam, Artistic Director of Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Ill., finally resigned after a two-year investigation into verbal abuse, racist misconduct, and sexual harassment (Writers Theatre 2021). All of these theatres and more have had serious crises come to light in the era of cancelation culture. What they differ in is their reaction and response to the crises.