Student theater initiative sheds light on sexual harassment

By Sophie Newman, Arts and Entertainment Editor     1/28/15 4:15am

Rice students prove that theater can be more than a recreation of fictional narrative — it can connect students to pressing issues within the Rice community, like sexual harassment and assault. The Speak Up Project is a new student-orientated theater initiative that shares anonymous stories from sexual harassment survivors. The project’s authors, Wiess College senior Vicky Comesanas and Hanszen College junior Lindsay Bonnen, hope that it will add to Rice’s already-established sexual harassment initiatives, like campus policies and Project Safe.

According to Comesanas, the Speak Up Project addresses the difficult “after the fact” part of sexual violence, which she believes is missing from many discussions.

“We want to start a conversation,” Comesanas said. “A lot of people don’t realize that victims are on campus.”

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Student survivors confirm that the Speak Up Project addresses an issue that is absent from the Rice conversation about sexual assault. 

“The fact that Vicky was easily able to receive stories from so many Rice students about their experiences [shows] that this happens all the time,” a student, who submitted a story and asked to remain anonymous, said. “Imagine how many more stories are out there having no audience.”

 The first part of the project involves gathering anonymous stories from Rice students about situations that have occurred at Rice or elsewhere. The stories, unedited and anonymous, will then be recreated by actresses. Comesanas believes theater is the perfect medium for difficult conversations. 

“Theater has an ability to represent [someone] without forcing that person to be on stage,” she said. “Over the summer, I began thinking that there [are] ways to use poetry and theater for social activism.”

The project has two main goals: to create a community to talk about sexual harassment on campus and to provide victims with a safe forum through which to share their stories. 

“If someone can’t raise their hand and say, ‘Hey, this happened to me,’ that person can write it down,” Comesanas said. “Someone else then shares that burden and acts out that story — that can be healing.”

Writing also provides student victims with a way to share stories that are often difficult to bring up with family members, friends or even professionals. 

“I felt like every time in the past I had to try to talk about my experiences, someone had shut me down or silenced me in some way,” another anonymous student writer said. “I’m not angry at these people — these are all normal reactions to a very hard issue. That being said, it was very hard to have something so traumatic happen and feel like it was so shut inside of me. This project gives me a chance to truly put all these feelings and thoughts out there.”

Comesanas hopes that the Speak Up Project, although not a solution for sexual harassment issues, will at least break the ice on a difficult discussion. 

“Obviously, it’s not a solution,” Comesanas said. “There’s not a magical cure-all. But if this can help and this can get people talking and being sensitive about things that happen on campus, I think it’s a good start.”

The Speak Up Project is set to premiere March 18

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