Racist incident rattles 'Smokey Joe's Cafe' cast at Engeman Theater in Northport

Northport police are searching for the person who allegedly yelled a racial slur at a cast member at the John W. Engeman Theater.

The incident happened after a Sunday matinee performance of "Smokey Joe’s Café."

The cast had just gotten off the stage and one of actors, who is Black, was walking out on Main Street when someone allegedly yelled the N-word.

The co-owner of the theater Kevin J. O’Neill says the actors were very upset by the incident and decided to cancel the 7 p.m. performance of the show.

“There’s nine members of the cast, seven of which are people of color,” O’Neil says. “And we just felt after speaking with everybody that the right thing to do was to cancel the performance.”

He says it’s not known if the person who allegedly yelled the slur saw the show or was just someone on the street.

The incident was reported to the Northport Village Police Department, but the actor has declined to press charges.

Northport village trustee Thomas Kehoe says the incident is “not Northport.”

“I’ve lived here 40 some odd years,” Kehoe says. “Northport is very diverse.”

But this is the not the first incident in the town.

Chrissy Ruggeri is with the anti-the group Not In Our Town Northport and says this is the fourth similar act in a month.

“On Friday we found out there were racial slurs, homophobic slurs and swastikas drawn in a high school,” Ruggeri says.

Northport village trustee Dave Weber says he’s looking to set up a meeting with the anti-bias task force in Huntington to address the issue.

"Smokey Joe’s Café" is expected to resume performances on Wednesday.

Not In Our Town Northport says it is buying up tickets to that performance to ensure it’s a packed house to support the actors.