Shattered: Exposing the Open Secret of the Children's Theatre Scandal

by Laura Stearns

John Clark Donahue was considered a brilliant but difficult artistic genius in American theater in the 1970s and 80s. His theater, the Children’s Theatre Company and School (CTC), rose to the heights of critical acclaim. It was also a home to more than two dozen sexual perpetrators. In 1984, Donahue’s arrest for sexually abusing male students threatened to close the theater’s curtains for good. The theater endured and the full truth of what was happening behind the scenes was swept under the rug, until now. Laura Stearns’ memoir follows her process of coming to terms with experiencing childhood sexual violence at CTC, of recognizing the depth of harm from a complicit culture which allowed child abuse at the theater to go unchecked for decades, and her journey of growing beyond trauma to a place of strength. She does so with unflinching honesty, lighthearted compassion, and a healthy dose of trauma informed education.

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2022

Reviews

[Carla Hagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful and insightful memoir is much more than an expose of the sexual abuse that blew the facade off the Minneapolis-based Children's Theatre Company and School. We see Laura Stearns as a young actor eager to hone her craft at a renowned theater conservatory, but as we accompany her on that journey, we witness how sexual violence hurls nightmarish roadblocks in her path. The details, in this age of #MeToo, are all too familiar, but Stearns does not dwell on them. Rather, she writes of how she took on her abusers and how she recovered her sanity and her self. And there is more. Stearns' book is not only a compassionate guide for other victims of sexual violence but also a searing gauntlet. Specifically, she challenges all of us to become part of transforming rape culture. This is a necessary book that will change lives.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

You should read this book, even though it's hard. It's also hopeful. And it's important.

[Molly McManus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brave and beautiful account of a tragic story.

Laura Stearns has given us a opportunity to look at painful truths in her brave account of her experience at CTC. This is not just her story but, the story of many children who abused and manipulated when they should have been protected and cared for.
The story needed to be told. She has done so, brilliantly. Thank you Laura for all the ways you have triumphed over trauma and come forward.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a theater kid, then a theater adult. I longed to go to the Children's Theater Company school in Minneapolis. Fortunately, my parents wouldn't even consider it. Laura Stearns did go, though. The toxic, all-encompassing community of abuse and artistic reach became her world.

This narration of her experience, an experience all-too-common in the hothouse intensity of the theater world, is disturbing and inspiring.

Laura's words are matter of fact, chronicling years of child abuse hidden behind a facade of apparent excellence, and supported by the willing complicity of the Twin Cities' art community, a complicity that continues and allows CTC to sweep this history under the rug and ignore the needs of the people who were deeply injured as children and who continue to deal with the fallout as adults.

Laura Stearns took advantage of a window opened by the Minnesota legislature to allow lawsuits to be filed after the statute of limitations had expired if the people filing were children when the offense occurred. Facing enormous pressure from a community determined to keep the breadth of CTC's crimes hidden in order to preserve the reputation of an institution, Laura went to court. Instead of supporting her and the others who followed her, CTC's board of directors mounted a campaign that denigrated her experience and her personally. I can only imagine they did this to discourage others who might file, a clear sign that the community has still not taken responsibility for the suffering of the children in its care.

Laura persevered, and continues to this day to work for the theater community she loves, basing her work in integrity and a determination to make backstage as warm and light filled as the onstage world. She's one of my heroes.

I love this book.

[Kristina Graber · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an amazing read and I could feel this book in my bones. Laura is a careful and thoughtful writer. She speaks her truth and does so with the scars of battle but the readers own possible trauma at heart. She is careful in how she presents this story hoping, that people pause for self-care along the way. She exposes so much about those scary days at Children’s Theater.
In telling her story she uncovers the undeniable and brutal ineptitude of SO MANY ADULTS, who stood by and allowed this abuse to happen. This includes law enforcement and judges who let pedophiles escape into the shadows. Still today the community support behind Donahue and Jason McLean enrages many of us who prefer pedophiles be punished appropriately.

[Kerstin Sjoquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a clear eyed telling of a story that needs to be heard. Laura Stearns does an incredible job of peeling away the layers of lies and deception that for so many years have hidden the ugly truths of the systemic childhood sexual abuse that the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre is built on. She tells her painful story with deep, unvarnished honesty and sheds light on the psychological manipulation that allowed children to be brutalized while many adults turned a blind eye.

Laura is the first of the former CTC children to publicly tell her story in such depth. May her courageous offering open the door for others to share their truths in ways that allow them to heal and flourish.

[Tracee · Rating 5 out of 5]

How brave this woman was to stand up and say something about what happened to her. I think that this book will bring comfort and courage to others who have went through similar situations. Reading this book made me want to cry to think that this Theatre company was grooming children for their own selfish reasons instead of protecting them. We take our children places thinking that the grown ups they are surrounded by will take care of them like we would and it pains me to think that there are people out there that do not do that. Unfortunately it still happens as much today as it did back then but hopefully we are more apt to stand up and say something when we know we should.

[Carin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work with children, if you work in theater, if you work in the Twin Cities, read this book. Don't let this happen again.