IN DISGRACE

Theater Director Accused of Sex Assault Found Dead

Eric Church had just resigned as artistic director of the Kansas City theater before his death.

A Kansas City theater director who who recently resigned in the face of sexual assault allegations was found dead on Christmas Eve. The Kansas City Star reports that Jeff Church, who ran the Coterie Theatre for three decades, was accused by more than a dozen young men on social media and elsewhere. “It’s been going on for over 30 years,” said Mark Manning, one of the accusers. “Most of these people were young theater artists trying to find their way through their theatrical career and a person in a very great authority position of directing them and deciding who gets paid and who gets the job [was] interfering in people’s lives.” No cause of death for Church, 63, was immediately released.