Content warning: This article contains discussions of rape, sexual assault, and violence.
With boxing gloves hanging and Greek aesthetic posters on the walls, Shanley Pavilion transformed into a university gymnasium. Spectrum Theater Company
will examine what it means to heal amid rape culture in its production of “How to Defend Yourself” during four shows Friday and Saturday.
In the play, two sorority sisters lead a self-defense workshop for five other students. The course allows students to find power and connection in light of the case of another sister hospitalized after two fraternity brothers assaulted and sexually assaulted her.
“It’s about reckoning with rape culture and blaming misogynistic systems in place, instead of blaming other women for their own trauma,” said Julie Monteleone, junior communications major and director.
Monteleone said she wanted to work on a production that speaks about an unfortunately relevant experience in a thought-provoking way for years. They don’t want to re-traumatize the audience, but rather have heart behind emotionally raw portrayals.
Zoe Davis, second year communications student, producer, said this piece dismantles discussions of taboo, including graphic discussions of sex, sexual assault and violence.
Davis wants the community to understand more about the subject by “seeing the art and feeling what the characters feel.” With actors right in front of them in Shanley’s intimate setting, it’s “real and tangible”, they said.
With a contemporary setting and college-age characters, the storyline might seem familiar to many viewers, Monteleone said. She said the play intends to depict diverse experiences of sexual assault and recovery.
Rape culture is pervasive, ingrained in culture and impacts people every day, according to communications manager Lucia Padilla Katz. who plays Kara, co-facilitator of the workshop. She said she hopes female-identifying people can find healing and male-identifying people can find understanding through the play.
“It’s not an isolated thing. It’s not just what happens on a night out with friends,” she said. “From the time we were children until today, these gender dynamics have been at play and place women in compromising positions. »
But the show doesn’t present itself as a solution, according to Mia El-Yafi, a first-year communications student, who plays Mojdeh, a first-year university student. According to her, the strength of the series lies rather in the recognition of societal problems.
“There is no bad guy or good guy. All the characters are so complex and morally non-linear,” El-Yafi said. “I think that’s what makes the piece so powerful.”
The setting changes as the characters and their relationships evolve to reflect that complexity, said Avelina Sanchez, a sophomore communications major and set designer.
Davis said the team worked with Northwestern’s sexual health and assault peer educators. to learn the best way to provide resources to the public. The program includes more than 20 resource lists, such as the Northwestern Women’s Center and the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
This weekend, Spectrum will display its community art work. The project will include collages of images that people say resonated around the topic, as well as words and poetry related to people’s experiences.
The team put out a call for contributions on how people defend or empower themselves – emotionally, mentally or physically. The project aims to honor people’s strength and voices, according to Monteleone.
“If we can just recognize how painful and upsetting this is, maybe we can find healing through this,” Monteleone said.
Spectrum also hosted a self-defense course on November 11, opening 25 places for participants to learn personal safety skills from a trainer and build their confidence. But these classes alone can’t solve a systemic problem, Davis said, so the class discussed how to keep voices active on issues facing women assigned at birth.
People socialized as women and women, Monteleone said, learn to bottle up their anger and play nice. This piece should celebrate this anger, empowering people and inspiring them to action.
“I hope this piece makes people angry,” they said. “I would love for audiences to come away really angry about the state of the world, about the state of what it means to be a woman in the world, and to actually use that anger to create change.”
E-mail: (email protected)
Twitter: @karapeeler
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