By Morgan Wenerick
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Department of Theatre Arts at Towson University hosted a staged reading of Naomi Iizuka’s play “Good Kids,” accompanied by a talk-back with the audience on April 26 as the final event for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The show is based on a 2012 rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, where a high school girl was sexually assaulted by two boys. Photographs and video were taken of the incident and posted to social media.
“[The show is] not an easy one to watch, but it’s an important one to listen to and talk about,” said Julie Potter, a Towson costume designer and producer of the “What Were You Wearing?” exhibit in the university’s Cook Library.
“The main theme of ‘Good Kids’ is how stories, especially surrounding sexual assault, get distorted and reshaped by … social media,” Assistant Director Liam Watkins said. “I hope people think long and hard about the media and social media surrounding these kinds of traumatic events and help contribute to a healthier culture for the future.”
Watkins said the play was requested to be read because of how closely it correlates to the purpose of the “What Were You Wearing?” exhibit: to question the narrative that blames the victim for being sexually assaulted.
In the play, Chloe, the character based off the victim in real life, becomes increasingly intoxicated as the night of this party went on, eventually passing out. Much of the show focuses on how she couldn’t remember what had happened to her after a certain point in time. The play’s plot recounts several different possible solutions of what may have happened, eventually leading up to the horrible reality of rape.
“Personally, I learned more about the process for legal action against incidents concerning sexual assault and how difficult it is,” actor Aryamar Colon-Pappaterra said. “The evidence is only kept for a certain amount of time, so if you don’t press charges within a time limit, they can literally destroy the evidence. That’s just one example. There are also a lot of legal complications and injustice that can happen within the courtroom. We need to make changes to how victims can get justice.”
Colon-Pappaterra read for the role of Skylar in the show, a “misfit loner” at the high school who brings an outsider’s perspective to the high school’s mainstream environment, acting as the moral compass, she said.
“I hope [the audience realizes] how much victim shaming happens in cases of sexual assault; how hard it is for people to come forward, but also how saying nothing and letting it ‘disappear,’ as some characters hoped, perpetuates that it’s OK for incidents like this to keep happening,” Colon-Pappaterea said.
Much of art imitates life, and that is definitely the case here, said Rebecca Glantz, another actor in the show. Putting on theatre that addresses heavy topics such as sexual assault is “necessary” because it doesn’t let the world exist behind a “wall of ignorance,” Glantz said.
Glantz also said that society needs to stop romanticizing and/or censoring assault. “We need to continue making great work that exists without boundaries and without the fear of making people uncomfortable,” she said.
So where do we go from here? A heavy load sits on the audience after the play concludes and people started sharing their thoughts, impressions, feelings and questions.
“As much as I know it’s easier said than done, if you need help and if you are going through a situation like the character in this play, do not be afraid to ask,” said Tyrel Brown, an actor in the show. “It can be a scary thing because just trusting people can be tough. But we have to find those people because those are the ones that we are going to keep in our lives forever.”
Brown played one of the men who actually contributed to the assault, describing the feeling as “scary.”
“I know there are men out there who do these things and I’m sure they’re always near,” he said. But Brown said that he learned how to be more familiar with his own boundaries and the boundaries of others, recognizing that it’s hard to ask for help when we need it, especially in regards to situations involving sex. “Protect yourself,” he said.
Creating the narrative is important. Starting a dialogue with someone about sexual assault is hard but essential. So, why theatre?
“I think one of the main reasons we do theatre is because we want to share a message that others might not get,” Brown said.
During the talkback that followed the reading, much of the attitude had evolved into one of growth and the yearning for more knowledge. Audience members said the play helped them become more educated about sexual assault, how to approach those who’ve experienced it, and how to talk about it. Some said they also learned that doing all of these things is not a finite journey.
Watkins said that we are never done with the work surrounding sexual assault, reinforcing the concept of how society should always be learning more about it.
Another point the show addresses is that nothing has really changed. Much of the talkback consisted of the audience, the actors, and the people behind the “What Were You Wearing?” exhibit calling for a whole social change.
As Colon-Pappaterra said, “It is necessary and a duty for art to use a platform to inform, educate, and create dialogue about heavy topics.”