For 28 years, Kimberly Mark has had a career working in the wardrobe departments of Broadway shows. According to a recent article in The Independent, since 2015 she had been working at the mega-hit Hamilton, dressing two of the stars each night. In September of 2022 she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer which required surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Mark took time off work to focus on her treatment and when she returned in August of 2023, she was given an accommodation and put on a “split-track” where she worked a reduced schedule of four out of eight shows every week. Despite treatment side-effects like fatigue, joint pain and some cognitive issues, she was able to perform her job effectively with this schedule
As part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), reasonable accommodations allow eligible employees with a disability (which may include a cancer diagnosis or its side effects) to request modifications to their job (or the environment the job is done in) to make it possible to perform the essential functions of the job.
While people often assume that reasonable accommodations will only be possible in an office type role, that actually isn’t the case. From fire fighters to school teachers to retail employees all kinds of roles have the potential to be accommodated—depending on the job responsibilities, side effect challenges, etc. Mark’s story illuminates this in a way we often don’t see and in a type of job we often don’t hear about. A dresser’s responsibilities can include carrying costumes up and down stairs, remembering where their actor is at each point in the show and when they are needed to assist the actor, running through backstage hallways, staircases and wing space to assist in quick costume changes, mending clothes with fine needle work, etc. For Kimberly, one of the challenges was continuing with those kinds of physical requirements and maintaining the energy levels and focus it required so she and her employer created a modified schedule that would allow her to manage those side effects. For three years this arrangement seemed to be working for everyone involved.
Things took a turn in June of 2025 when management told her the job “had become too physically demanding” for her, and her final day would be in September unless she went back to all eight performances a week. She was not confident she could go back to the full schedule since she was still experiencing ongoing side effects from her medication. Despite attempts at negotiations with management, including efforts from her union rep, she was let go from the production.
As you can see from the article, Ms. Mark’s is challenging this dismissal in light of the three years she was accommodated and able to do all the required elements of her job on the reduced schedule. She also has good documentation of the arrangement and while we can’t know all the details, it would appear that nothing significant changed for the production to require her to return to full-time or be let go. Choosing to be public and to challenge being removed from a role, is an incredibly personal decision to make and there are many factors to consider. Ms. Mark sharing her story offers us a useful glimpse into how accommodations work, why it is critical to keep good records and what can go wrong even once something is set up. We’ll be watching for updates to her story. In the meantime, for more information and resources on reasonable accommodations, check out: