As was reported late Monday, Lee Trull, director of new play development, was abruptly dismissed by the DTC for ‘inappropriate behavior.’

But Trull has wide connections throughout the North Texas community, and some of those dominos began falling Tuesday morning. Second Thought Theatre, where Trull was scheduled to direct the next production, ‘Hillary and Clinton,’ has announced that it’s “rescinded” that offer of directing. For those members of the community who hope that Trull’s firing might inspire not only discussions about sexual abuse in local theater – and possibly effective reform – the release goes on to say: “In addition to removing Mr. Trull from our season, our staff and Board of Directors have already begun revisiting our harassment policy to re-confirm its efficacy, and we are working to improve procedures for better articulating the policy to company members at the beginning of every production process.”

Tina Parker of Kitchen Dog Theater, where Trull has been a longtime company member, sent a shorter announcement: “I wanted to let you know that Lee Trull has been suspended from the Kitchen Dog Artistic Company pending further review.” And Stage West, where Trull was set to direct ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City’ in March, has pulled him off that show.

And now Cara Mia Theatre has said they salute the brave women who have come forward with their allegations about Trull’s behavior — and the company’s own relationship with Trull (he co-wrote ‘Deferred Action’ with Cara Mia director David Lozano) “has prompted Cara Mía Theatre to review and strengthen its current sexual harassment policy.”
Here is the full Second Thought release:

Late last week, Second Thought Theatre learned of allegations of misconduct by Lee Trull. Due to the nature of those allegations, our leadership decided we could no longer entrust Mr. Trull with a position of authority, and this past Sunday we rescinded his offer to direct in our 2018 season.

Second Thought Theatre is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment where artists feel comfortable and confident creating alongside one another. We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination or harassment of any kind. It takes action by each of us as individuals and as a unified community to hold each other accountable, to have difficult conversations with each other, and to look inward at our own organizations so that we can make each other better and hold each other to higher standards. It’s a conversation we as a community should have begun before the #metoo and #notinthishouse movements became necessary. While we are distraught that this conversation has to take place, we will not shy away from doing what is right. This is our community, and we want to do our part to make it better.

Our first priority is to ensure our artists feel secure and protected while working at Second Thought. In addition to removing Mr. Trull from our season, our staff and Board of Directors have already begun revisiting our harassment policy to re-confirm its efficacy, and we are working to improve procedures for better articulating the policy to company members at the beginning of every production process.