Profiles' Darrell W. Cox Responds To On-Stage Abuse Allegations After Theatre Shuts Down

As reported by BroadwayWorld, after a recent report published in the Chicago Reader, where former cast and company members accused its co-artistic director of physically assaulting actors on stage throughout the run of its award-winning 2010 production of Tracy Letts' KILLER JOE, Chicago's Profiles Theatre has posted a notice on its website and Facebook page announcing that "effective immediately," the company is "closing its doors after 28 years and 81 productions."

Actor Darrell W. Cox, who has been serving as the company's co-artistic director since shortly after it was founded in 1988 by co-artistic director Joe Jahraus, has been accused of ignoring the initial staging of violent scenes in the play and of regularly physically abusing his cast mates on stage during performances.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cox denies the accusations. "We have always gone to great lengths to protect everyone physically while performing combat, intimate and other risky scenes," he writes to the Chicago Tribune. "With respect to KILLER JOE we had a fight call every single day and I checked in after the performance every night. I would ask questions to the actress if everything felt safe and if there was anything we needed to adjust. We did this daily ... the fight choreographers had us doing some high-risk moves."

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The Chicago Reader article, which can be read here in its entirety, suggests that the non-union actors felt too intimidated to speak up against their treatment, for fear of not being seen as dedicated to giving audiences the best performance possible. Actor Somer Benson, whose character was thrown across the stage and choked by Cox's Joe, said she was regularly attacked during performances.

Cox received a 2010 Jeff Award for his performance. An online petition at the website Change is calling for that award to be revoked.