Theatre Director Resigns After Predator Catch Video
by Chris Peterson
Warning: This article contains discussion of alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor, as well as references to online predator sting operations.
Boxcar Theatre’s longtime leader, Nick Olivero, is gone. He resigned on Sunday after an online vigilante group accused him of trying to meet up with someone he believed was a 14-year-old boy. The fallout was immediate.
Boxcar released a statement saying they were “shocked and appalled,” and assured the community the company would move forward without him. Managing Director Stefani Pelletier and Executive Producer Laura Drake Chambers are already stepping into his role. Olivero himself has not commented. He resigned before the board could even meet to discuss what to do with him.
The accusations come from People v. Preds, one of those self-styled “predator catchers” who lure suspects online, then film them in public. Think To Catch a Predator meets social media clout. They posted a video showing a man who looks a lot like Olivero walking out of a San Diego grocery store, with the cameraman confronting him: “You’re here to meet a 14-year-old kid, dude. This ain’t gonna look too good.” The group also shared text screenshots they claim are from Olivero, where the supposed teen says he is “bout to be 15.”
Here is the video in question.
These groups operate in a gray zone. Sometimes they tip off law enforcement, but other times it is more about views, shares, and notoriety than justice. Proving anything in court is messy. Still, once the footage is out there, the reputational damage is irreversible, especially for someone running a theatre company. And in Olivero’s case, the optics are not just bad. They are catastrophic.
And Boxcar is not walking into this scandal with clean hands. The San Francisco Chronicle investigated them last year for everything from bullying and harassment to wage theft and retaliation, all connected to their immersive hit The Speakeasy. Now their next big project, this fall’s haunted house show, has already been canceled. They say they are developing a new concept, but it is hard to ignore the timing.
The bigger question here is how many public black eyes the theatre community is willing to tolerate from the same company. Boxcar was founded in 2005 and built a reputation for gritty, risk-taking work. But for years now, their “edginess” has been overshadowed by toxic work culture, financial complaints, and now allegations against their highest leader that go far beyond bad management.
At some point, “the show must go on” is not enough. The community deserves better than another headline about misconduct. And the artists working under Boxcar deserve a company that is not constantly trying to claw its way out of scandal.