(Minneapolis, MN) – A lawsuit was filed today on behalf of a sexual abuse survivor, Erin Nanasi, in Hennepin County District Court naming Children’s Theatre Company as the defendant. Nanasi was sexually abused by Stephen Adamczak in the early 1980s when she was a student at Children’s Theatre Company. Adamczak worked at Children’s Theatre Company as a Sound Technician, Sound Designer, and Instructor. Attached and included below is a statement from Erin Nanasi.
This is the eighth lawsuit filed on behalf of five sexual abuse survivors since early December 2015 naming Children’s Theatre as a defendant. In addition to Stephen Adamczak, other staff members have been accused of sexually abusing students at Children’s Theatre, including John Clarke Donahue and Jason McLean. Donahue, McLean, and Adamczak have been named in the recent lawsuits brought on behalf of former Children’s Theatre students.
In 1984, the year former director John Clark Donahue was arrested, the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension also investigated Adamczak. He was criminally charged for the sexual abuse of two minor girls and was acquitted.
This lawsuit is made possible due to the Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of sexual abuse to file claims against their abusers and the institutions that protected the abusers. In bringing her case under the Child Victim’s Act, Erin could have remained anonymous, as other survivors have chosen to do. But Erin has chosen to speak out publicly to encourage other sexual abuse survivors to come forward. Under the Child Victim’s Act, survivors of sexual abuse must bring a claim by the May 25, 2016 deadline.
Copies of the complaint and Erin Nanasi’s statement are available on our website.