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Women claim they experienced abuse in local community

Several women, many who were minors at the time, are claiming they experienced sexual advances ranging from unwanted groping to statutory rape while participating in community theater in the Mahoning Valley.

In the aftermath, some of the women are asking local theaters to put policies in place to protect all performers, especially minors, and they may pursue criminal charges.

Selena Phillips, 20, a Youngstown native now living in Pittsburgh, posted eight videos on YouTube on Friday sharing explicit details of four men who she says abused her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17 and sharing additional information on Facebook. Other women commented about similar experiences or made public social media posts.

Phillips and three other women — Grace Offerdahl, 21, of Youngstown and Pittsburgh; D’Ella Heschmeyer, 20, of Liberty; and Miranda Canacci, 20, of Youngstown — participated in an hourlong interview via Zoom. Each shared their stories on Facebook after seeing Phillips’ videos. Offerdahl and Heschmeyer relayed similar experiences with one of the men accused of victimizing Phillips. Canacci said she was pursued by a man in his early 20s when she was 15 years old. Her parents discovered the interactions before anything sexual happened, she said. She said she believes that’s the only reason she doesn’t have a similar story to tell.

Attorney Kim Akins also participated in the conversation.

“Because this happened while they were minors, the statute of limitations that would ordinarily apply doesn’t apply here,” Akins said. “I’ve had conversations with the prosecutor’s office, and we’ll be in touch with them about the possibility of filing criminal charges.”

All of the women talked of being “groomed” by their predators, who manipulated their emotions and tried to drive a wedge between them and their families so they had no place else to turn for support.

“He isolated me from any other support system I had outside of him and his friends, all of which made the situation feel completely normal and me feel absolutely insane,” Phillips said.

Offerdahl shared a similar experience.

“People like these people understand that children — and we were children — are far easier to prey upon,” she said. “Our brains are not fully developed; we are somewhat naive. When you are 13, 14, 15, you’re going through a lot of personal changes and personal development. … When somebody you look up to and you trust turns to you and is paying attention to you, your first thought isn’t, ‘Oh, this is a pedophile and I’m being groomed.’ Your first thought is, ‘Oh, this cool, older person I respect is paying attention to me.'”

As the #MeToo movement made clear, girls and women can be victimized anywhere, but some aspects of the theater experience make it a unique atmosphere for these problems.

“I’ve been thinking about abusers in theater and speech and debate (in high school),” Heschmeyer said. “Both of these are mediums where people come in, and they’re seeking approval. When I started, I was constantly seeking the, ‘D’Ella, you’re doing a good job,’ ‘D’Ella, you’re doing better.’ It really left this big, wide-open space for wolves in sheep’s clothing to come and give the approval I was looking for and using the fact that I trusted the people giving me that approval.”

It’s also not uncommon for teenaged girls to be cast as love interests opposite adult males in community theater.

“I’ve seen that a lot in the theater community,” Canacci said. “Young women especially are matured way too early. … If you’re 15, we can’t have you on stage fake kissing a 25-year-old.”

That’s one of the changes they would like to see come from this public discussion.

“I want to see real policies being put in place for protecting young actors in the future and see people in power either, A, change their approach and listen to the victim and having those conflicting conversations that make them so uncomfortable or, B, take these people out of power and put in people who can can have those conversations to protect these students and artists under their wing,” Phillips said.

“People need to feel safe to come forward,” Offerdahl added. “I didn’t feel safe, and I should have. This needs to be the safe space it’s supposed to be so people can come forward and share their stories.”

Akins said representatives from some of the area theaters were scheduled to meet Tuesday night to discuss the issues raised in the last week.

“It will be my recommendation that directors become personally responsible for seeing that younger members of their productions are not subjected to this kind of behavior,” she said. “Theaters are going to have to be accountable.”

John Cox, president of the Youngstown Playhouse board, said they put a policy in place within the last two years spelling out what was appropriate and inappropriate behavior. He said they have not had any complaints since the policy was put in place, but he said he’s also been told by women in the last week that they do not feel comfortable coming forward.

“Whatever needs to be done to break the cycle, we should do,” Cox said.

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