Students are collaborating to create a showcase piece about sexual assault and conversations surrounding sex.
Zoe Settle, acting senior, is working on a play for her devising class that involves subjects from the #MeToo Movement. This will be a part of Workshop Wednesday today, and the final performance will be May 2.
Workshop Wednesday is a monthly performance of projects from a special topics theater devising class. Performances are every first Wednesday of the month.
Settle mentioned her idea to Greg DeCandia, professor of theater, and they began discussing the potential of this as a final project.
“Everyone was excited because I think there’s something everyone can relate to in the #MeToo Movement,” Settle said. “It’s not just about sexual assault. It’s just about how our culture treats sex and how our society acts toward women.”
The project began with Settle and her team creating advertising campaigns, videos, articles, and tweets about different messages toward women and subjects related to sex and sexual harassment.
“We’re showing the reality of how sex actually is treated and approached outside of schools, so like showing this perfect abstinence-only reality versus what our reality really is, which is getting catcalled and being worried to walk alone at night or go to parties,” Settle said.
Settle said she’s excited for the openness of the show, and she’s excited to start a dialogue about the #MeToo Movement.
“Sex, in general, is something that people have a hard time talking about,” she said.
Settle did a similar project last year. Settle and Franziska Harms, acting senior, co-directed a production called Really Really as part of a weekend of sexual assault awareness. The show was not permitted to be on campus because officials said the content of the piece wasn’t relevant to the season, so they had to perform the piece at a student’s house.
Rachel Necessary, acting junior, is part of the devising performance. She said the plan is to perform a scene that takes place in a court. She also said she’s enjoyed working with Settle and seeing her passion for the subject.
“She has idea after idea with this,” Necessary said. “She’s been really collaborative with all of us.”
Necessary said it’s important to have shows like this because many of the subjects within the #MeToo Movement happen to college women. She said the show makes people feel empowered.
“I think some of those stories and experiences we can share, so that we can say to students that, even if you feel like you’re not being heard or even if you have an experience that you haven’t shared, that you’re definitely not going through this alone,” Necessary said.
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