Since its founding in 2012, Otherworld Theatre has been a haven for theater fans who also love gaming, sci-fi, and fantasy. But over the past two months, a wave of allegations involving Otherworld, the resident company Out on a Whim (creators of the long-running hit Improvised Dungeons & Dragons), and Moonrise, Otherworld’s LARP gaming division, have hit social media outlets.
For their part, Otherworld’s board of directors announced October 23 on the company social media feeds that they have hired the New York-based HR firm of Peale Piper to enable them to “conduct a thorough review and bring healing and accountability to the community.” In the meantime, founder and artistic director Tiffany Keane Schaefer and her husband, board member and director of development Dylan Schaefer, have temporarily stepped down from their positions.
The writers of the letter had first thought about going public with their complaints back in the fall of 2019. Eventually, they sought the advice of Lawyers for the Creative Arts.
According to Shrom, “One thing that Bayley did to me and every other woman in the show was trying to get them to break up with her boyfriend.” (Another former ensemble member, who requested anonymity, also maintained that she had that experience with Pokorny, and private texts between castmates provided by Shrom show that other women in the cast were raising questions about his behavior.) In the interview, Spears noted that he too received uncomfortable questions about his relationships from Pokorny.
In an interview, Ruppert confirmed that she had a private meeting with Pokorny. “He was extremely receptive, he immediately corrected his behavior, and we’ve never had another problem.”
How much did Otherworld know about what was happening with OoaW? According to Spears and Shrom, the company members who lodged complaints were told not to contact Otherworld. In an interview, Tiffany Schaefer said that Ruppert asked her for advice about how to handle the complaints against Pokorny. “To me, it seemed like a show-mance gone wrong,” said Schaefer. Schaefer said she was brought into another cast meeting with Out on a Whim in July 2019. “Otherworld at that point in time was acting more like a guide, as a facilitator or a mediator rather than someone who was, quote unquote, enforcing rules or enforcing boundaries.”
