Community Theatre Under Fire for Knowingly Casting Sex Offender in Shows with Minors
by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder
TW: Details of sexual abuse
A community theatre in Utah is facing outrage after it was discovered they had cast a convicted sexual abuser in multiple shows with minors in the ensemble. To make matters worse, the parents of the minors were never notified by staff at the Empress Theatre, that a person on the sex offender registry would be alongside their children.
The controversy centers around the casting of Keldon Severn "KC" Cook.
Cook was convicted in 2015 of sexually abusing a minor on multiple occasions. He was sentenced to prison and is currently listed on Utah’s sex offender registry. However, in the years since his release from prison, he has been cast in multiple productions at the community theatre in Magna, UT, including ones with minors in the cast.
In 2021, he was cast as Davey in Newsies and as Prince Adam in Beauty & the Beast. Both shows, especially his role in Newsies put him in close contact with minors. He has also been cast in shows such as Legally Blonde and A Chorus Line, which also featured minors in the casts.
But it was his casting in this season’s Cinderella (which concluded its run a couple of weeks ago) where things came to a head. Cook had been cast as Prince Topher.
According to Bridges Eatchel(she/they), who was in the cast of Cinderella, a meeting was held via Zoom before rehearsals began. During that call, show director Sarah Walker Bringhurst and Joshua Adams (Vice Chair of Oquirrh Hills Performing Arts Alliance – OHPAA—the board that governs over The Empress Theatre), explained that Cook was a registered sex offender but that all was not as it would seem.
“We were told (Cook) was on the sex offender registry for a misunderstanding/mistake many years ago, that he had atoned for what he did wrong, and that if we wanted to continually punish him, we were the ones in the wrong,” Eatchel said.
After the meeting was over, Eatchel says they did a Google search on Cook’s conviction and was horrified by what they saw. They told me that resigned from the show immediately. Eatchel tells me that they weren’t the only ones upset with Cook’s casting. The following day, a casting change was made and Cook was no longer in the cast of Cinderella.
But it was later found out that Cook was being considered for the role of Gaston in the Empress’ production of Beauty & the Beast. This is when Eatchel messaged both director Sarah Walker Bringhurst and artistic director Ty Whiting to discuss their concerns about Cook’s involvement in yet another show with minors in the cast.
In screenshots of that text conversation, Bringhurst defended her decision to cast Cook.
In the days following, Ty Whiting resigned as Artistic Director and Sarah Walker Bringhurst took over the role. On Aug 28th, an emergency board meeting was held where Joshua Adams explained that the theatre had a new policy prohibiting those on the sex offender registry and other issues from participating in OHPAA productions(see below).
Something that needs to be mentioned is that the parents of minors cast alongside Cook say they were never told that their children would be in close contact with a registered sex offender, who was convicted of sexually abusing minors. I’ve seen screenshots of texts with parents of minors in shows with Cook who had no idea he was a a convicted sexual abuser and on the offender registry.
There are also reports that theatre staff said that safety protocols were in place when Cook was in a show with minors, but that is being disputed by parents who say that they were not made aware of or didn’t see any safety protocols in place.
A petition is being circulated on change.org demanding the resignation of Sarah Bringhurst as Artistic Director, Josh Adams as OHPAA Board Vice President, and Suzanne Whiting as OHPAA Board President.
“Sarah Bringhurst, Joshua Adams, and Suzanne Whiting were made aware of these allegations but chose not to take appropriate action to remove the individual from all Empress Productions,” the petition states.
“By allowing KC Cook to continue participating in Empress Productions without consequences or accountability, these board members have created an unsafe environment for volunteers and performers alike, until it was pushed into awareness by brave individuals. It is imperative that we hold those in positions of power accountable for their actions or lack thereof. The safety and well-being of everyone involved with The Empress Theater should be paramount.”
I’m told that as of today, both Joshua Adams and Sarah Bringhurst have resigned. (UPDATE 8/21/23: Suzanne Whiting has also resigned)
This issue is also being talked about on social media. Chelea Reece, who is behind the popular TikTok account @teresa_jack, posted a video detailing the situation.
My take on this is very simple: Convicted sexual offenders, especially those currently on sex offender registries, should never be cast in shows with minors or anyone with the same identity as their victims. And any theatre leadership or director that would knowingly allow that to happen, has no place being in those positions.
While I’ve seen some cases where community theatres were unaware that a sex offender was involved with their productions, that’s not the case at the Empress. The staff there knew that Cook was a convicted sexual abuser of minors but looked past that and cast him in shows with minors anyway. And worse yet, they ghostlit anyone who questioned their decision-making.
It also shows gross ignorance of what Cook was convicted for and why he may have been involved in that theatre in the first place.
Cook met his victim in 2012. Cook was his counselor at Brigham Young University during a weeklong program focused on the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After the program was over Cook would send explicit images to the teenager. In 2014, Cook met his victim at the LDS temple in Bountiful to "catch up," and then went to a nearby park where the victim stated Cook sexually abused him. He then stated Cook abused him on multiple other occasions.
After being arrested, Cook pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old. All the charges are third-degree felonies. He was sentenced to four concurrent terms of zero to five years in prison. At this time, I do not know how long he served in prison but it appears he will have to register as a sex offender until the end of 2023, which would be ten years after his conviction.
It should be noted that at the time of his arrest, Cook was an assistant cheerleading coach for Alta High School and was set to be the head coach at Brighton High School, but Brighton fired him once he was arrested.
It’s clear that Cook put himself in positions where he would have access to teenage boys. A local community theatre is another and one of the few places where Cook could legally be in the direct presence of minors.
In Utah, community(or even youth) theatres are not listed as “protected zones” - which are off-limits for those convicted of a crime against a minor.
Cook would not even have to make it known that he was on the sex offender registry, but that didn’t matter since Bringhurst and others knew and still gave him access to a theatre space shared with minors.
It hasn’t been reported that Cook abused any minors at the Empress, if something had happened, the staff at the theatre would have absolutely been held responsible. The poor decision-making by Bringhurst and others put everyone at risk, not to mention a huge liability for the theatre. I’ve written about this countless times and how theatres need to do their due diligence when casting minors in shows with adults.
I know many who believe that second chances are deserved and that time served is punishment enough. But I argue that those who are convicted of certain crimes, shouldn’t be given access to the same environments they used to prey upon their victims. Cook used activities involving minors with adult mentors to groom and abuse his victim. The shows he was cast in at The Empress were the same type of environment. The fact that the staff there didn’t recognize that, is egregious.
I certainly hope those at the Empress and those at every other community theatre hear this and learn from it.