Performers And Staffers At “Sleep No More” Say Audience Members Have Sexually Assaulted Them

But eight former Sleep No More performers and staffers told BuzzFeed News they were groped by audience members during the show. In all, BuzzFeed News confirmed 17 incidents of groping or sexual misconduct by patrons during the show — including of two former performers who were groped multiple times. Sleep No More acknowledged seven of those incidents, and contested the rest. In all, BuzzFeed News spoke with more than 30 current and former employees, but most declined to be identified, citing Sleep No More’s nondisclosure agreements or fear of reprisal from the company and theater community. Four former employees who were groped provided their names.

Performers And Staffers At “Sleep No More” Say Audience Members Have Sexually Assaulted Them

This is odd because I've seen audience members get groped by the actors, particularly a topless actress groped a female in the crowd and made out with her. The whole performance has a lot of blurred lines as to what is appropriate and what is not.

boonanas said: "This is odd because I've seen audience members get groped by the actors, particularly a topless actress groped a female in the crowd and made out with her. The whole performance has a lot of blurred lines as to what is appropriate and what is not."

That was my first thought, too. Did no one anticipate that groping was going to be an inevitable consequence, given the nature of the show? If not... well, that would be stoopid.

Does anyone know if security personnel are indiscriminately part of the cast/crew so that actors are protected?

A bunch of drunk people wearing masks in a dark space where you're encouraged to interact with the cast. What could possibly go wrong?

Updated On: 2/6/18 at 12:10 PM

LAW AND ORDER: SVU (Season 13, Episode 11) - "Theatre Tricks"

An actress (Jenn Proske) in an interactive theater production is raped on stage, while the audience believes it to be part of the show. The SVU detectives hit a dead end in their investigation when they learn the show's passionate director (Fisher Stevens) gave the audience, including the assailant, masks to wear during the performance. Rollins and Tutuola track down an obsessed fan (Adam Driver) of the young actress who recorded the assault while stalking her, which leads Benson and Amaro to a respected divorce court judge (Kevin Pollak). With the judge's reputation on the line and Cabot hesitating to charge him, the SVU squad explores the underbelly of the New York theater world to uncover who really orchestrated the public attack.

I was lingeringly touched on the butt by an "actor" in this silly piece when I saw it, so this whole thing sounds ridiculous. Here's an equally good headline: "Actor in Naked Boys Singing Accuses Audience Members of Staring at his Genitalia."

This is not surprising at all. With more and more being "interactive", the audience feels like they can treat the actors like Disney characters and say or do whatever they want. This happened all the time way back when I used to do Mystery Cafe and are working with mainly drunk people. As a male, the female audience members were the worse and so messy.

Sounds like lap dancing with artistic pretensions. Weirder than I heard about it.

It doesn't help that someone anon quoted in the article and who is top manager at Sleep No More treats front-line staff terribly. I have stories for days. Stories that include the manager in question having guests crawl out of an elevator that was stopped between two floors so that the show wouldn't have to be canceled/refunded. There are issues.

Punch Drunk has much more control over their shows overseas. Sleep No More NYC is almost like... a licensed or franchised Punchdrunk production. Punch Drunk Creative didn't visit the show to check up on it after it opened in until the start of 2016. Rooms and characters have been cut from the production in the last year to save money as well as the cutting of some effects (like the smells). More parties have been pushed as well. It's become run by the money, not by the art. Which, I suppose, is commercial theatre. It's just been sad to see what's happened in the past few years.

quizking101 said: "LAW AND ORDER: SVU (Season 13, Episode 11) - "Theatre Tricks"

An actress (Jenn Proske) in an interactive theater production is raped on stage, while the audience believes it to be part of the show. The SVU detectives hit a dead end in their investigation when they learn the show's passionate director (Fisher Stevens) gave the audience, including the assailant, masks to wear during the performance. Rollins and Tutuola track down an obsessed fan (Adam Driver) of the young actress who recorded the assault while stalking her, which leads Benson and Amaro to a respected divorce court judge (Kevin Pollak). With the judge's reputation on the line and Cabot hesitating to charge him, the SVU squad explores the underbelly of the New York theater world to uncover who really orchestrated the public attack."

Lol...yes, I remember the episode well....I guess I meant am I ONLY remembering the episode, and not that I thought I'd heard about this before.

BJR said: "I have a friend in the show and we were discussing this a few days ago. He has been grabbed by an audience member during one of his nude scenes and producers gave him explicit permission to defend himself when it occurs (as he did) and the audience members will be removed (as they were)."

Don't want to say this is a lie, but I doubt any professional producer would approach unacceptable behaviour by telling cast members to 'defend themselves' if this happens. It's not WWE .

Side note: While I'm grateful that it's keeping Broadway actors employed, God, SVU is ****. Don't @ me.

Anyway, you'd think if they admit to at least 7 incidents, they'd have a better plan to prevent it from happening than sending out one of the actresses into the audience as "bait."