by Sarah Mirk

On Monday night, Kathy Cawthon ’08 hugged her knees to her chest, awkwardly squeezed into a student desk. “I woke up the next morning in my room … naked,” she said, her eyes glancing down to the blue folder in her hand to read the line. Cawthon’s performance is part of this weekend’s one-act activism, tucked away in Main Lounge.

The [justsex] sponsored staged reading of Until Someone Wakes Up is a series of fictional narratives, written by Macalester students but based off of actual interviews with people who have experienced sexual violence. The cast of four women and one man takes on different roles in each scene, switching genders, ages and, occasionally, from the role of victim in one scene to rapist in the next.

Jenny Rosenbaum ’06, director, encouraged her performers to adopt the mindset of their characters. This is difficult in Until Someone Wakes Up, since most of the cast members are not experienced actors and some of the characters are unsympathetic. Amanda Slatus ’07, former leader of the Feminist Action Coalition, had trouble playing the part of an insensitive boyfriend who “just does it” with his sobbing girlfriend.

Exposing Grinnellians to different, difficult perspectives is Rosenbaum’s intention. She described the performance as “theatrical activism … theatre that means something in a broader social context.” Rosenbaum believes that theatre has the power to have a deeper emotional impact and be more personalized than traditional modes of activism, such as protesting at the capitol building or staging a fist-pumping rally. Her cast agreed.

Theatre is not a new medium for activism against sexual violence. Awareness-raising plays such as The Vagina Monologues have been in vogue over the past decade, informing audiences about traditionally taboo subjects.

Theatre is a “way to bring [these difficult issues] to them in a format that’s easy to deal with,” performer Kelsey Morse-Brown ’09 said.

“There are people who will go to see a play who might put protestors out of their mind,” Rosenbaum said, adding that “everyone has to sit through that Sex Signals production.” This reading is meant to cover all the aspects of sex that people don’t normally consider.

According to those involved in the reading, Grinnellians needs a little provocation to think about sexual violence more in their own lives.

“Grinnell is definitely not above needing this play,” Slatus said. “People still don’t want to admit that it happens here.”

Written by students at one of Grinnell’s peer colleges, Until Someone Wakes Up acknowledges that sexual violence can and does occur, even on campuses where its not generally considered a problem. The show is meant to foster an environment where students can feel comfortable and safe talking about these often awkward issues.

Alison Oldham ’07 noted that “people do talk about things in this abstract academic setting” but don’t take the next step of practical change. Oldham hoped that the performance would help change an atmosphere that makes rape more socially acceptable, making people think twice before they make snide comments related to rape or promiscuity.

Slatus believes that students at campuses like Grinnell don’t talk about sexual violence, in part because of the “small-campus syndrome: no one says anything that you wouldn’t want the whole campus to know.” This play is an act of protest against the idea that Grinnell is impervious to sexual violence. “We’re too ‘enlightened,’” Slatus said. “Until we admit that it’s not completely safe, it’s never going to be.”

<Back