Horovitz departs from the Gloucester Stage Company as his son, Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, issues statement saying ‘I believe the allegations are true’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Award-winning playwright-screenwriter Israel Horovitz, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment, has departed from the Gloucester Stage Company.

The Massachusetts-based theater announced on Thursday that Horovitz – who is the father of Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys – had left after officials there confronted him about a New York Times story detailing on-the-record allegations ranging from forcible kissing to rape. Horovitz was Gloucester’s founding artistic director and an ex-officio member of the board of directors. In 1993, the Boston Phoenix reported similar allegations. But the theater at the time defended him.

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Horovitz’s plays include Out of the Mouths of Babes and Strong-Man’s Weak Child. Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor and Charlie Rose are among other men who have been forced out recently because of harassment allegations.

The playwright’s agent did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Thursday.

Horovitz said in a statement to the Times that while he has “a different memory of some of these events, I apologize with all my heart to any woman who has ever felt compromised by my actions, and to my family and friends who have put their trust in me”.

His son, Adam, who is known as Ad-Rock, issued his own statement to the newspaper: “I believe the allegations against my father are true, and I stand behind the women that made them.”