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Foreign. I'm an attorney, I'm an actor, and I'm an advocate. My name is Sean Hayden. When I was wrongfully fired as an actor from a certain famous theater, I fought back. Suddenly I was a whistleblower and I told my story true crime style in a podcast. Since then, I've been telling your stories and having the tough conversations that a lot of people in the entertainment we don't want us to have. This is stage combat. The podcast Looking Glass Theater disputes aspects of actor Ayanna Strutz's account of her experience working at Looking Glass in its production of Circus Quixote. Looking Glass Theater has maintained that its productions are safe and produced in accordance with union rules and industry standards. This podcast previously extended an invitation to Looking Glass Theater to appear on an episode and share their side of Ayanna's story. We did not receive a response. In the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile sits a theater with big dreams. The date is January 27, 2025 and there's a big ribbon cutting ceremony happening. The ceremonial ribbon cutting today with Governor J.B. pritzker and looking Glass Theater founding member David Schwimmer. Looking Glass was forced to close our doors, pause operations for 19 months and let the majority of our staff go. It was devastating. We decided to regroup, rebuild and today reopen. And let's stop right there. What you're hearing is the cold open from one of two episodes that was to air on this podcast back in April. The episode was called Ayanna through the Looking Glass. It's the story of a young Chicago actor named Ayanna Struts and her account of her experience working at Looking Glass Theater. That's the theater you heard David Schwimmer talk. Story centers around a show called Circus Quixote, Looking Glasses production of the classic Don Quixote tale, but with circus aerial acts integrated into the storytelling. Ayana is not only an actor, but she's also a trained circus performer and she worked her way up over the last 10 years to work at the best theaters in Chicago. And finally, Yana achieved her dream of working at Looking Glass Theater in Circus Quixote production. She says she received multiple injuries in, including a spinal leak injury that has left her disabled. It's actually a story that Ayanna herself began telling on her social media about a year ago. And over the last year, Ayanna has sought accountability from Looking Glass for her injuries, injuries that she believes in her opinion were caused by unsafe working conditions. And she also sought a commitment from Looking Glass that it would make changes when it comes to safety for circus acts and her fellow circus performers. She actually drafted up actionable items of changes that the theater could enact right away. Unfortunately, Ayanna says she received in response what she calls HR type responses stating along the lines that Looking Glass could not address her concerns since this was a legal matter. Even though Ayanna had not sued Looking Glass and there was no lawsuit, this story about young Ayanna struts has ripped the hearts of so many members of the Chicago theater community.
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I was just trying to process everything, like not just the fall, but everything
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that had like led up to this fall.
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What am I doing here? Like, what am I doing? Maybe I should have walked out a long time ago.
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That's part of a clip of Ayanna from her podcast episodes that we played on our social media the week before her podcast episode was set to drop. It was that clip that got a lot of views on social media by people in Chicago and got quite a reaction, including from Looking Glass Theater, because three days before Ayana through the Looking Glass was set to air, our social media followers heard me make this announcement. Unfortunately, I have some unsettling news to share with all of you regarding Ayanna's story. Yesterday we received a notice from the attorneys for a Looking Glass theater to cease and desist and they threat to sue us over content regarding Ayanna's story. If you've been following us, this is about a Chicago and in that video I also informed our followers that I invited Looking Glass to come on this podcast with Ayanna and defend their position. Let us hear their side. That social media clip got twice as many views as the clip with Ayanna that provoked the cease and desist from Looking Glass in the first place. A lot of people were very angry, one person commented. Looking Glasses fumbling the opportunity to make this right, ignoring the cries of the Chicago theater community and doubling down on their attempt to silence artists of color. I can't help but wonder what part of the Chicago community Looking Glass believes they are nurturing. Their actions are breaking my heart. Another person said, how does this horrible situation continue to get worse? And this person had this to say.
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Interesting that Ayanna has been telling her story for about a year since this happened, and in great detail, asking for help from anybody, Actors Equity, Looking Glass, anybody who could possibly right this wrong. And they have been completely silent this entire time until all of a sudden she tells her story to an outlet that's going to get the story out to many more people and basically finally put Looking Glass Theater on blast. All of a sudden we're met with a big Chicago law firm with a cease and desist letter. Interesting.
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And we will note there have been those who have been loyal to Looking Glass who have lamented what they perceive as as a mob mentality against the theater as a result of the Ayana controversy. So here's what I would like to do. I want to strip back the production the Bells and the Whistles and just talk to you from the mic. Let's talk about how we got here and what is the state of play with Ayanna's story, never forgetting that this is ultimately about a young woman who is now disabled. But I also want to talk about for the first time exactly what was in that cease and desist from Looking Glass Theater and why. I believe, in my opinion, Looking Glass's decision to send it is a watershed moment of sorts in the Chicago theater community, perhaps all theater communities that we have got to talk about. We need to ask the question, can the way a theater responds to a crisis be almost as consequential as the crisis itself? And we will explore these questions in this two part episode. I'm Sean Hayden and you're listening to season four of Stage Combat, the podcast. This is episode eight, the Looking Glass How We Got Here for those of you who are not familiar with Looking Glass Theater, it was formed back in 1988 in Chicago by David Schwimmer, along with a group of Northwestern University graduates, including David Catlin, who was the writer and director of this production of Circus Quixote that we've been talking about. Looking Glass soon became known for ensemble based innovative productions and won a Tony Award in 2011 for outstanding regional theater. I think it's important to note that this whole controversy comes at a potentially precarious time for Looking Glass because although Looking Glass managed to stay open during the pandemic, it was forced to shutter in 2023 and it only reopened last year in January with the help of a $2 million grant that came from the State of Illinois. And while that ribbon cutting ceremony was happening that you heard at the top of this episode, the inaugural show for the reopening was in rehearsals. That show was Circus Quixote, the show that Ayana says she was injured in. I've been told by more than one person that Looking Glass is known for these incredible shows that have spectacle but also have risky physical demands for the performers. Here's the creative team selling Circus Quixote to the Press in January of 2025.
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And our work is predominantly new and original works that often feature spectacle. So our upcoming show, Circus Quixote, that's going to have a bunch of new circus apparatus, stuff that has been designed specifically for the show that's never been performed on anywhere else. So that's an example.
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And the idea of circus is it's
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about what's irrational and silly and nonsense,
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defying the laws of gravity and taking to the, to the air. That is a.
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That's a really beautiful thing. We choreograph around the physical capabilities of the actors and we, we, not, we develop the act, the skills as they go along, and we use what, you know, what feels good for them and what feels, you know, like pushing their boundaries, but also, you know, keeping them in a way that they can stay safe.
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That's the voices of the current artistic director, Casey Foster, the director and writer David Catlin, who was one of the founders of the theater, with David Schwimmer and the choreographer Sylvia Hernandez de Stasi. So, as I said at the beginning of this episode, Looking Glass disputes elements of Ayanna's story. Let's just get that out of the way. But what we do know is that within a few days of that ribbon cutting ceremony, Ayanna was injured, but she was actually injured three times in this production. Ayanna suffered a genital tear, she suffered an injury to her shoulder, and then she fell during a performance. And that's where she says she suffered a spinal leak. But we also know around the time Ayanna fell, three actors, including Ayanna, were injured within three days of each other. There was Ayanna's fall. A male actor injured his hand there, and another woman also fell and had to be taken out by ambulance. So how did we become involved with Ayanna's story? Well, I met Ayanna myself at the end of last December as a result of reading her own story on social media, because Ayanna had published accounts of what had happened to her, and she had also been very public about various medical spinal procedures she was undergoing for her injuries. After meeting Ayanna, I found her incredibly articulate, and I was so moved by her story, I was honored that she made the decision to tell that story on our podcast, a story she had already told. But now it would be amplified in an emotional way on our platform where people would hear her voice and see her video clips on our social media. So let me just get this out of the way, particularly for the Looking Glass lawyers and the Looking Glass Theater team, who I am sure are listening. We welcome the downloads. But I say this to you, Looking Glass, with all sincerity, and I want you to listen to me. An actor is allowed to have an opinion about their work environment. An actor is allowed to have an opinion about whether things could have been safer in their work environment. Now, you may not like those opinions. You may have a different opinion. You may also have a disagreement about a fact. I'm going to talk about that later. But you cannot discount how an actor felt on a production in terms of their own safety, where injuries can be potentially disabling for life or lead to death. Particularly when we are talking about extremely high risk circus acts, which Looking Glass regularly integrates into its shows. And at a time when so many theaters all over the country are integrating circus acts to deliver a spectacle to the audience and an attempt to attract more ticket buyers. Because we should always be thinking about what could be safer on a production. We want to be thinking about that, because the consequences of something not being safe are catastrophic. I want to talk to all the artists out there, not just the actors, the crew persons, the stage managers, and I want to ask you this question. Have you ever worked on a job where everything was 100% safe? Go ahead. Think back through your jobs. I'm thinking through mine. There's always something that could be done better. Now, I want to ask you this. Have you been injured on a job and did that cause you to ask whether or not something could have been done in a more safe manner? What if you had been injured three times on that job? I wonder what kind of questions you would be asking yourself about the workplace. I've got another question for you. Have you worked on a job where three people were injured within the span of three days? Would that cause you to think that something needs to be examined here at the workplace? Because what I can tell you from my own personal experience working on productions for over 25 years, that's not normal. I would be asking questions. And Ayana had questions about her experience working at Looking Glass Theater. She had questions about whether it was safe as a performer to be asked to create her own choreography for aerial acts and to perform circus skills that were not within her areas of expertise, even though she was a trained circus performer. She had questions about the number of hours that actors could be required to work in the air, given how much stamina that requires physically. So, yes, while Actors Equity, the actors union, may say, you can work a full day of hours, is it safe? Could the actors be rehearsed to the point of fatigue that it could produce an injury. She had questions about the number of changes in a new work that could be thrown upon the cast daily. This production was a new work that was being rewritten. So in addition to all the physicality that was involved, the mental challenges of the number of changes, the manner that those changes were implemented, and whether there was adequate rehearsal or in some cases any rehearsal to implement something before it had to be performed in a performance. She had questions about whether her concerns about safety were being heard, whether they were being implemented. She questioned whether it seemed like safety safety changes were being made only after someone was injured. She also felt as a cast member, this is the way she felt that there was pressure upon the cast to reopen this theater in what she called a just pushing through culture because there's only so many hours to get a show open. She questioned whether that may have compromised safety. There were many other questions Ayanna had about safety practices at Looking Glass, and I just want to note she was bringing these questions forward and telling her story with a unique perspective. This was her first time to work with Looking Glass on a new work, and she was seeing firsthand Looking Glass's process and bringing new works to the stage. That's a different perspective than, say, someone who had been with this theater for years or even someone who had been with the theater for decades. A different perspective than someone who might be willing to say, well, that's just the way things are done here. Some people have noted that Ayanna was possibly one of the few people to publicly shine a light on potential safety issues at Looking Glass. We have to ask ourselves, was the amplification of her story that was to happen on this podcast ultimately simply too much of a threat to Looking Glass? I'll be back after this brief message. Hi everyone, Sean here. I just want to take a moment and acknowledge that many of you ask how you can support the important work we do at Stage Combat the podcast. Well, I'm going to tell you, the best way is to become a member at Stage Combat the podcast. At Patreon, you might have noticed we don't make you listen to advertisements. Instead, we rely on the support of our members and for just $5 a month, you can be one of those cherished members. The best part is there's no commitment. You can be a member for a month, a few months, or throughout the year. Plus you get really great exclusive bonus content for our episodes, including extended interviews, plus my Shaun Off Script mini episode where I dive deeper into what you heard in the episode, and I give you inside information about the making of the episode so you get a lot of cool stuff while also helping us out. We'd love to have you become a member today. Just follow that link in the show notes and and now back to the episode. I want to say something about this podcast. This podcast has been around now for over three years. For over 50 episodes. We have told some bold stories, starting with my own personal story with one of the most famous theaters in the country, the Goodspeed Opera House. If you don't know anything about this story, this is all you need to know. We told this story like a true crime podcast where I laid out the evidence from Goodspeed's own documents that we obtained in litigation stating that my employer lied about my work record, attempted to destroy my reputation, and turned a blind eye to my own personal mental health crisis. Did not get a cease and desist. We took on the story, a tragic story about an actor named Jeff Lofelholz. He was in Chicago the Musical on Broadway, and Jeff felt like he had been bullied into quitting the show. And after a confrontation with the director and a notorious rehearsal, Jeff took his life. Several days later, we reached out to the producers of Chicago for comment. Didn't get one. We also didn't get a cease and desist. We've told stories about what happened backstage at Wicked on Broadway. People were so traumatized, they were left with mental health and emotional injuries. Some of them just left the business. They were destroyed as artists. Sounds pretty bad, right? Didn't get a cease and desist. We've taken on the Actors Union, Actors Equity, many times, telling the stories about how many actors believe the union has failed them in protecting them in the workplace. We did not get a cease and desist. You know what we got? We got an email from Actors Equity asking, can we come on your podcast and talk about the changes we're trying to make? I remember asking the communications director, which by the way, is a different person than who is in place right now. But I asked, why did you reach out to us? And she said, because a lot of actors listen to your podcast and they trust you. And that is the thing I'm proud of. I think this podcast has a reputation of being tough because if you're not tough, you're not going to get anywhere. But we're also fair. This is not a got you podcast. It is a podcast to give voice to the vulnerable and those who have been silenced with a hope that in telling these stories that Actual change can result in the industry. And that is what I thought was going to happen with Looking Glass Theater. Because here's what you might not know about this particular story. Prior to me getting this cease and desist early on a Thursday morning, I had been in direct dialogue with the artistic director, Casey Foster, for a couple of months. And the way Casey Foster and I met was I send her an email and said, we're doing a story on Ayanna. You already know the story. It's in her emails to you. It's on her social media. It is consistent with that account. But do you want to include a statement? And we heard back. She actually thanked us for, quote, creating such a thoughtful podcast for the industry, end quote. Wow, that's nice. And she sent a generalized statement about they take safety seriously. And we recorded it for a Yanis episodes. But then I continued this conversation further with Casey Foster because I said to her, there is something good that could come out of this tragic story. I told her there was an opportunity to have a public dialogue about the necessary changes in the industry when it comes to circus safety. And to her credit, Casey Foster proposed that this summer we have in Chicago a gathering. She called it a gathering of industry professionals. She would try to get someone from the Steppenwolf, someone from the storefront theaters, possibly Actors Equity, other artists, to talk about safety issues. And she invited both Ayanna and me to participate. I was set to fly to Chicago. I spoke to Casey Foster on a Zoom call for over an hour on March 19 to brainstorm about this gathering. We were going to do this even though she knew Ayanna's story was coming out the following month in April. There were a couple of conditions on the Looking Glass side. One, we couldn't specifically talk about what happened to Ayanna. We could only talk about issues. And the second was Casey didn't want any press with the event because I suggested, hey, you should get press on this and show the industry that you're leading on these issues. That would be good for Looking Glass and it would be good for the industry. And her response was she didn't want people to think there was a connection between this gathering and what happened to Ayanna. Okay, interesting, because I'm thinking as I'm hearing this. Come on. This event, in my opinion, is only happening because of what happened to Ayanna. So Ayanna and I had a long talk about this. Should we attend this gathering? We questioned whether we were both being used as pawns to make Looking Glass look Better. We perceived that this was a damage control event for Looking Glass. And we had heard that some other people had been asked by Looking Glass to attend, but turned Looking Glass down because they didn't feel like Looking Glass had done right by Ayanna. But Ayanna and I also discussed was it better to attend this gathering, get the issues out in front of the industry, than to not talk about them at all. I told Iyanna, this gathering, it is not the forum that you deserve. It's not the accountability that you deserve. But if it brings a public conversation forward, if it can prevent injuries and even save lives, that's a good thing. And I used my own personal experience with the Goodspeed Opera House as a contrast to show how this gathering initiated by Looking Glass, could be a good thing. Because in the midst of that Goodspeed Opera House mess that I was involved in, I proposed to Goodspeed in a mediation session. I said, here is a list of mental health initiatives, and if you will implement them, even though I know you're never going to publicly say, we are so sorry for what we did to Sean while he was working here, I would have been willing to promote those initiatives and say Goodspeed is now willing to lead on mental health. That would be good for Goodspeed, that would be good for the industry, and I would say, follow the lead of the Goodspeed Opera House. Now, at the end of the day, Goodspeed was not willing to do that. But what I told Ayanna, at least Looking Glass is willing to have some kind of forum that could make the circus community safe. And that's remarkable. That's the model that we want from telling our stories. We want to tell our stories so we can nudge you, the industry, to make changes that you're not going to make on your own. Maybe Looking Glass is different and something good can come out of this horrible tragedy. So this is a long way of saying, you can imagine how surprised I was on that Thursday morning to get a cease and desist and a threat to sue us over content about Ayanna's story. There was an opportunity here for Looking Glass that was squandered, in my opinion, actions they chose to take, which have eroded their support in the Chicago community. And it starts with that cease and desist in which Looking Glass disagreed with how high up in the air Ayanna was when she fell. That's right. The height from which she fell. But more importantly, Looking Glass objected in that cease and desist to the fundamental thesis of Ayanna's story about her safety. I'm going to break all of that down for you in part two of this episode about how the cease and desist, in my opinion, was the wrong way for Looking Glass to respond to this cross crisis and how another subsequent move by Looking Glass made the crisis worse. Theaters out there. I hope you are listening. I believe there are valuable lessons to be learned here. Plus, I'm going to tell you all where we stand today with a YANA story. Let's all meet together at part two of this episode and finish this very important conversation. Coming up on part two of the Looking Glass story. Here's what I'm really concerned about when it comes to this moment by Looking Glass and sending this cease and desist. This is really important. I want you to listen to this. It is the messaging that resulted from the cease and desist, whether it was intentional or not. Now, that cease and assist was not against Ayanna. It was against this podcast. And some Looking Glass loyalists have said, hey, they didn't try to stop Ayanna from talking. It was just the podcast. Okay, you know what was the first thing Ayanna asked me when I spoke to her after we got the cease and desist? Are they going to sue me? So intentionally or unintentionally, what kind of message did you think the cease and Desist was going to send to Ayana? To anyone who worked on Circus Quixote and wanted to speak out? To anyone who works with you in the future and just might stop themselves from bringing up something that doesn't feel safe to them? We all have to ask ourselves, has the ultimate effect of this letter been to send a message, whether intentional or not, that dissent at this theater will not be tolerated, that this theater will not tolerate an actor having a negative opinion about their safety in the workplace? That's coming up. The looking glass story how a theater responds foreign. This episode was edited by Alex Griffith. Mixing and sound design were by Justin Gerrish. Please stay in touch with us. Send us a DM at Instagram @StageCombatthePodcast IG or email us@StageCombatthePodcastMail.com and do consider joining us as a member at Stage Combat at Patreon. Just follow the link in the show notes. I'll meet you over for the continuation of this episode. The Looking Glass How a Theater Responds Stage Combat is a production of Heywood Productions, llc.