A year after sex scandal and suicide, Kansas City children’s theater names new leader

One year after Jeff Church, the Coterie Theatre’s long-time artistic director, died by suicide amid accusations of sexual impropriety, the children’s theater in Crown Center has named a new permanent producing artistic director.

Khalia Davis, 35, a former director of the now-defunct Bay Area Children’s Theatre in Berkeley, California, said she accepted the Coterie job having been made well aware not only of the exemplary work the theater has done since its founding in 1979, but also of the recent scandal, still fresh in people’s minds.

“Everybody has acknowledged how hard and how difficult it had been through this transition,” Davis told The Star. “If this is part of the fabric of the Coterie, I don’t think we should be trying to move past it or brush it under the rug. It’s something that is going to be part of the Coterie’s journey as a theater.

“But, hopefully, what I think people have witnessed over the last 13 months, is that we are still here and the mission hasn’t changed.”

Davis, who was raised in the Bay Area and educated at the University of Southern California, said she feels confident in the Coterie board’s actions since Church’s death. Her expectation is that while the Coterie acknowledges and deals with its past, the theater will also prevent any similar abuses and move forward.

Davis, at a salary of between $85,000 and $95,000, is set to begin Feb. 1.

Her appointment comes 13 months after Church, 63, the artistic director of the Coterie for more than 30 years, was found dead by suicide on Christmas Eve 2022. Church had resigned earlier that day following sudden and multiple accusations on Facebook saying that he, for years, had used his authority to engage in inappropriate sexual activity with younger men associated with Coterie productions.

“He has groomed, abused, and assaulted, numerous young men over the course of 30+ years. Myself included,” one actor, KC Comeaux, said on Facebook just prior to Church’s death.

Soon after, Church’s attorney, Larry LaVigne II, said Church died by suicide amid a social media “dogpile” before he could tell his side, which held that Church’s accusers were “consenting adults.”

In March, an independent investigation paid for by the Coterie confirmed “multiple occasions” when Church “engaged in nonconsensual sexual acts against adults,” mostly at his home. Thirty-five people, including long-time associates, were interviewed.

Last February, the board named actress and producer Heidi Van as the theater’s interim producing artistic director. Jonathan Thomas, who was the theater’s director of development, was named the theater’s new managing director.

Questions have remained about whether board members knew of Church’s behavior over the many years he led the theater. Thomas said their investigation suggests that no one knew.

“That’s a question that everyone has,” Thomas said. “And the answer is definitely no. No corroboration of any kind, or reports to any board member, or to any of the executive leadership. … It is one of the things that we wanted the investigation to focus on: Are there people that are involved with the organization in the past that had knowledge of this? We could not find any evidence of that.”

Davis said a recruiting firm approached her and told her about the Coterie job. She was initially wary about pursuing the job in another children’s theater. In 2023, she ended a three-year stint as director of the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, which, after 19 years, closed due to financial difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was exhausted,” Davis said. “It was just a lot of crisis management for three years.” She wanted to make sure the Coterie was financially sound. She also had questions surrounding what she called “the darkness” of the accusations around Church.

“I was very concerned. I wanted to get some answers,” Davis said. “I wanted to know the scope of how much it had truly influenced the work the Coterie was able to keep doing. That was the first thing. I was like, ‘Is this the thing that took you down? Is this the thing that’s taking you down? Is this the thing that, like, nobody wants to come anymore? Nobody wants to participate anymore?’

“But then, when I’m meeting them (Coterie leadership) and talking to them, and seeing all the work they’re doing, I’m like, ‘It looks like you all have been able to move in a direction that is real exciting.’ … What I want to highlight is that, through this entire process, everybody was honest and forthcoming with any questions I had.”

Thomas said, in fact, that after the accusations against Church surfaced, major donors who had long supported the theater increased their giving, making 2023, “one of our most successful years, especially as people, post-COVID, gradually have returned to live theater.

“I think with a tragedy like that, and with the adversity, if the organization was not worth something to the community, I don’t think it would have survived,” Thomas said. “Major stakeholders in this in community were like, ‘Wait, tell us what’s happening. We want to see the Coterie succeed. We want to see the Coterie pull through this.”

The Coterie, long recognized as one of the premier children’s theaters in the nation, mounts six main stage shows a year. In November and December, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical,” Thomas said, proved to be the theater’s most financially successful ever, attended by 20,000 people. On Tuesday, “The Lightening Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” opened and runs though March 10.

A biography released by the Coterie notes that Davis was, most recently, the assistant director for the premiere of “The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical.” Before that, at the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, she led the premiere of a children’s play about racism that was viewed more than 80,000 times on Broadway on Demand and brought together more than 40 production partners, including the Coterie.

Her work has supported composers and playwrights from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community. Plays include: “She Persisted the Musical” based on the book by Chelsea Clinton, “I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings,” an adaptation of Maya Angelou’s novel, mounted by the New York Children’s Theater, and a premiere of “Arthur and Friends Make a Musical!” based on the PBS animated series.

Before becoming artistic director at the Bay Area Children’s Theater, Davis was the director of inclusion and education with Brooklyn Children’s Theatre, “restructuring their children’s musical theater programming through an anti-racism lens.”

Davis is the Coterie’s first Black producing director.

“What I love about Khalia,” Thomas said, “is that she’s one of the folks who really believes in TYA, theater for young audiences. A lot of the more talented theater industry folks, once they have developed a bit of a reputation, decide to move on to more adult theater. But she’s really committed to it.

“She’s one of the most talented people in the industry. We wanted someone who knows new works and can really speak to different communities in Kansas City. The opportunity to have representation in leadership was also a big focus for us — to have somebody on stage that kids could see that looks like them.”

Davis said she anticipates bringing new programs to the Coterie.

“I’m really passionate about having new work for young audiences,” Davis said. “And the Coterie actually has a history of having and uplifting new stories. This is such an awesome opportunity to bring in these new voices. I know how incredible these artists are.

“It could be great to give them a new home, to develop their work, and have something cool and exciting for kids.”