ANCHORAGE (KTUU) – A registered sex offender who performs with Cyrano’s Theatre Co. will no longer be acting with the company.
Jenson Seifert lists Cyrano’s as his employer on the state’s sex offender registry.
He is a former teacher at Birchwood Christian School who was charged, and later served time, for sexually abusing a minor.
At the time, police accused him of molesting a 14-year-old boy repeatedly, including while he was a chaperoning a youth outing.
Cyrano’s says Seifert has been a performer with the company for about a year and that it was encouraged to work with him after he successfully performed at other places in Anchorage.
“He was doing all that was asked of him, which does not negate or condone his crime in any way, and we were very clear in our communications with him, and he also with us, but he has made all of the steps to work toward rehabilitation and second chances,” Teresa Pond, the Producing Artistic Director at Cyrano’s said. “And we felt that warranted an opportunity, again based on the fact that he had already had success working in theaters and being successful, with a second chance.”
But on the theatre’s Facebook page a debate ignited about how transparent Cyrano’s was and if Seifert should be able to perform with the company.
Alaska Theater of Youth, which had a pop-up camp last week at Cyrano’s, says it was unaware of his involvement. ATY says it was assured that Seifert had no contact with any of the children at the camp.
“That was my main concern. The children’s safety, was my first priority,” Hanna Bankston with ATY said.
Tuesday afternoon, Cyrano’s updated its Facebook page and said registered sex offenders will be prevented from working at Cyrano’s in any capacity.
“We know the community would prefer that we don’t have someone who is on the sexual offender registry in our shows, and that is absolutely fine,” Pond said. “We support all of those people those who have been victims, anybody who has found this to be difficult and upsetting, and that’s far more important to us.”
Seifert is in a production with Cryano’s that will run two more weeks. Pond said he will continue in those plays but they will be his final performances.
FAC NOTE: If anyone would like to submit comments to the theater, you can do so here: http://www.cyranos.org/contact
There it is. The “offender’s” rights to pursuit of happiness are denied to let others “feel good.”
It doesn’t mean ANYTHING that he is doing what he is supposed to and, probably. is of NO danger to anyone.
It is all about perception.
Life time punishment and nothing else. Anyone who says it is not is a fool or a politician.
There is ZERO incentive to follow this ever growing list of demands/punishments.
No second chance for you!
This is a prime example of a story that ‘Sara’ of that master’s program in journalism discussed in another FAC post should be covering, if she wants to report on the adverse effects of sex offender registration.
Basically you loose your life but have to breath til your heart stops. His crime doesnt mater he’s on that list.
Instead of people writing here to complain, how about writing to the company? Here is what I wrote:
Hello,
I had read about the news about removing a successful actor from your show who also happened to be on the Registry. I would like to ask your company a few questions:
-Is it OK for this person to be victimized after he has served his time?
-Is it OK for this person AND his family to be victimized by being denied a way to make a living?
-Is your community safer now that you’ve taken away a person’s stability and income? Please ask your company and your audiences especially this question.
-Are you still hiring Murders, Arsonists and Bank Robbers, or other Carreer Criminals that are not required to be on any Registry despite them having (emperically proven) exponentially more risk to human beings around them?
-Would you prefer other companies denying human beings a chance to make a living after paying their dues to society, and then having those people sue the government to remove access to the Public Registry in its whole which would hide the repeat Offenders from public view as well?
It is unfortunate that people with little to no knowledge about the reality of the registry and the unconstitutional laws get to affect people’s lives in such a negative way.
Good!
Yeah man but just the term Sex Offender is so taboo it doesn’t matter how good the man is he is now excluded from capitalism. No one can make a buck off this man once discovered.
I am sure it will be immediately filed in the round filing cabinet on the floor.
Logic and reason are not used in American justice.
I don’t understand what you mean by “Hide the repeat offfenders Anyway.” Seems to me that repeat offfenders should not be allowed back on the street again, if proved, BUT the registry leaves a person wide open to false accusations.
Anybody could be a repeat offender, the registry wouldn’t stop them. And the registry is false security. My landlord was a sex offender wanna-be; he climbed all the way up on the roof to watch me in my bedroom, he was working in the basement and knew I had just taken a shower bc of sound, but since I am wife of RSO in prison at the time and needed a place to live, I didn’t report him, didn’t want to tell wife either, nobody would have believed me. I stopped him of course, easy. Kept my shades pulled all the time and that fixed that. Also, I had a big dog that could back anybody off. But he tried to force me to get rid of my dogs. One was little, the other could’ve torn anything apart. He did manage to force my little dog out, but I got moved before he raised enough of a stink about the big one. The little one was very sickly and had to be put down anyway, but that’s life, as wife if a man in prison, I could not afford the dogs medical care. The church put me up in that place and they put the little dog down.
My point is a registry doesn’t stop the wannabes. What it does do is destroys lives.
I always thought that
RSOs are much more mentally intact anyway, what with the normal reaction of wanting to hurt people who are poking sticks at them.
But to intentionally destroy a man’s life, or woman, it’s just wrong.
Geez. When does this insanity stop? So it wasn’t enough that the company ASSURED ATY that he wasn’t involved in the camp, but they weren’t satisfied until he was totally axed? That’s the problem we have in this country. This country absolutely worships their children and wants to control and protect every little footstep they take in this world. That’s why we have so many millennials that don’t know how to function in the real world. And as I’ve said before, it makes no sense to me how people freak out about their children over every little thing and perceived danger out in society, but they are totally OK with mothers walking into abortion clinics everyday and killing their own children. Makes no sense to me at all.
So herein lies the question, what in the f**k do they expect us to do to get by? I’m sure there’s not a whole lot of options in Alaska for work. Maybe he should be one of those Ice Road Truckers. You’re always by yourself, no one will bother you and you’re never around minors. Unreal. It never ends.
So it’s okay to portray a sex offender while acting, but a sex offender who is acting as another character is not okay? Murderers okay to act still, right?
We humans just need to vote 🗳 for a better humans government that’s all
Roxwayne,
unfortunately, there are no decent humans who want to run for office
Agree. Politicians don’t care about people. Look what they just did to Obamacare. They’re voting in the big pockets again – Big time insurance companies.
@ kayt
You’re absolutely correct! Government and business don’t mind taking money out of our pockets, but they sure as hell don’t want to put any money into our pockets!