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 Adams, 48, and another woman sued the Children's Theatre Company
and former employees for abuse and failure to prevent it. The
lawsuit was filed last year during a legal window the state created
for victims.
Hundreds of people have brought similar lawsuits in Georgia,
California, Delaware and Hawaii, which enacted similar reforms to
eliminate or extend statutes of limitations for up to three years to
allow victims to bring civil actions.
Without reforms such as these, people who say they survived sex
abuse decades ago have little hope for seeking justice.
Criminal prosecutions of decades-old abuse cases remain impossible
since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it is
unconstitutional to retroactively change statutes of limitations.
Still, advocates say civil cases give victims a chance to break
decades of silence. Most such lawsuits lead to out-of-court
settlements, according to lawyers who handle sex abuse cases.
 "This window of opportunity is the biggest gift I can even imagine,"
Adams said in a telephone interview. "For me it's about making the
conversation around child sexual abuse no longer a taboo subject."
While one of the founders of Children's Theatre Company pleaded
guilty to sex abuse charges in 1984, Adams said she and others were
too intimidated at the time to bring up abuse by other staff.
The Children's Theatre said in a statement when the lawsuit was
filed that it stands with abuse victims in their desire to see
justice done, but does not believe the company was negligent.
A lawyer for former actor and teacher Jason McLean, whom Adams names
as her abuser, did not respond to a request for comment.
The difficulty in addressing old sex abuse cases was seen recently
in the case of ex-U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who admitted in
federal court he molested high school wrestlers in the 1960s and
1970s while he was a coach. However, he cannot be prosecuted or sued
under the laws of Illinois. After Hastert was sentenced for a
financial crime related to the sex abuse cases, Illinois Attorney
General Lisa Madigan called for the complete elimination of the
state's statute of limitations on sexual abuse crimes against
children.
Other states are also looking at reforming statutes of limitations.
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In Pennsylvania, the state Senate may consider reforms that were
passed in April by the House, shortly after a grand jury report said
bishops at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese covered up sexual abuse of
hundreds of children over four decades.
Opponents of reforms include the Roman Catholic Church and insurance
companies that say evidence is difficult if not impossible to find
after so much time has passed, and that litigation drives
institutions into bankruptcy.
Backers of reforms say it can take decades for victims to break
through denial and shame, and seek legal action.
That was the case with Barry Singer, who along with 33 other victims
has claimed abuse by staff at the private Yeshiva University High
School for Boys in Manhattan in the 1970s.
Singer said he is disappointed New York state senators have resisted
reform, even though the state's lower house has backed initiatives
to do so.
He and other victims sued the school for covering up the abuse, but
the case was thrown out due to the statute of limitations. The
school investigated abuse complaints and issued an apology in 2013
and said it was adopting new policies to prevent abuse.
In a phone interview, Singer said: "I didn't realize that the
manhandling and the wrestling and the fondling and the groping that
I endured as a child was sex abuse until my own children were in
school and I began to think, 'What if this had been done to them?'"
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Ben Klayman and
David Gregorio)
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