Joette Pelster of KC’s Coterie Theatre passes away at 71
Joette Pelster. Courtesy Coterie Theatre.
Joette Pelster, who served as the executive director of Kansas City’s beloved Coterie Theatre since 1993, died at age 71.
Pelster “passed away peacefully at home in her sleep” on Friday, Nov. 25, according to the Coterie. Just a week prior, on Nov. 17, Pelster announced her plan to retire by the end of Jan. 2023.
“The Coterie was prepared for Joette’s retirement with detailed plans already in action, but this news comes as a shock not only to The Coterie family, but to the entire performing arts community where Joette was loved and respected in a way that very few people achieve,” says Coterie Board President Andrew Van Der Laan.
The Coterie flourished under Pelster’s leadership. Pelster’s cultivation of community support by the Shubert Foundation, Menorah Legacy Foundation, Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation, and Missouri Arts Council allowed The Coterie’s annual budget of $600,000 to expand to $1.6 million, reportedly.
Pelster’s proudest achievement was securing National Endowment for the Arts funding in The Coterie’s Great Books/Banned Books Season. This was the mid-90’s–the impact of censorship remains.
The Coterie’s producing artistic director Jeff Church–who managed hundreds of productions alongside Pelster–says, “Pelster made things possible; she was a visionary. The loss we all feel cannot be described.”
Before Pelster worked for The Coterie, she was the marketing director for the Folly Theater and then became the first executive director of the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey (KCFAA), where she and Alvin Ailey collaboratively conceived the national AileyCamp model.
She also briefly left The Coterie to assist Pat Jordan in the restoration and reopening of 18th and Vine district’s Gem Theater.
In 2004, TIME Magazine named the Coterie one of the top theaters for young audiences, calling it groundbreaking, and “one of the nation’s most respected.”
Pelster was dedicated to intergenerational conversation. She oversaw dramatic writing programs (Young Playwrights’ Roundtable), teen LGBTQ work (Project Pride), and mental health workshops (Project Daylight).
“Her favorite review was when Travel + Leisure magazine said, ‘this is a theatre that resolutely refuses to talk down to children’,” says Church.
A celebration of Pelster’s life is scheduled on Monday, Dec. 19, at 4 p.m. at the Coterie. The family requests donations to The Joette Pelster Visionary Fund at The Coterie Theatre “to commemorate her legacy as a Kansas City arts visionary.”
