Chicago Show Cancelled After Director Banned from Opening Over Abuse Allegations

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS DETAILED ABUSIVE LANGUAGE AND BEHAVIOR

A Chicago based theatre company has cancelled an upcoming production after the show’s director was banned over alleged abuse.

Exit 63 Theatre was set to open Jenny Rachel Weiner’s “Horse Girls” on September 5. But according to the cast, they were subjected to alleged abusive language and behavior by their director, Exit 63 Artistic Director Connor Baty.

To make matters worse, the behavior continued after the production had initiated “Not in Our House” conflict resolution methods.

According to a statement on Medium.com, the all-female cast(Ari Kraiman, Bailey Castle, Liz Lengyel, Jenni Hadley, Marisa Lazar, Jackie Bowes, and Harmony Zhang) details the alleged abuse which took place on August 28,

“Baty answered a question by telling the all-female ensemble to, “just fucking do it, you bitches.”

-Following this, an actor voiced that she felt hurt by this language using the Not in Our House conflict resolution policy “Oops/Ouch” that the company had previously agreed upon.

-Baty refused to follow the “Oops/Ouch” protocol and instead began to yell at the cast for not trusting him and being “difficult.” He proceeded to yell that he “put a lot of money into this.”

-During the outburst, Baty screamed, pounded his fists to his knees, and exhibited threatening physical behavior while the actor who brought forth her concerns stood openly crying.

-Baty then justified his use of the word bitch by calling himself a “fucking f**got.”

-One actor then tried to leave the space and was physically stopped by Connor standing up, extending his arm to block her, and saying “no, you can’t leave”.”

The following day, the cast and production team met and decided it would be best for the production to continue without Baty being present. But that only led to further problems.

“Baty insisted on attending opening night and was refused,” says the cast. “An email was sent from Exit 63 Theatre’s sole funding source, Bruce Baty (Connor Baty’s father), canceling the show. Shortly after this, the Exit 63 Theatre company website, Facebook page, and Instagram were completely wiped of all promotional material for the show and then deleted.”

Currently, all of Exit 63’s social media and website are offline.

The cast concludes by stating,

“This statement is our final recourse to end the attempted erasure of our experience, and ensure that no further harm comes to our peers in the theatre community due to this experience.”

Attempts to reach Mr. Baty have been unsuccessful. We will update this story with information as it becomes available.