Actors Raise Rape Awareness in Eliot

A man and woman stand together in a darkened room. The air is thick with alcohol.

"She mumbled something, and I couldn't tell what it was," he said. "It definitely wasn't no."

Calling It Rape, a community-oriented theater ensemble, performed this scene in their hour-long performance last night designed to focus on the issues of acquaintance rape.

The five member cast acted out seven separate scenes of potential rape situations before about twenty people in the Eliot dining hall.

"Our goal is to promote awareness about the issues surrounding acquaintance rape through dialogue," said Tyrone Jones '00, the group's producer.

"We don't have answers but there are a lot of gray areas which need to be explored," he said.

Juri E. Henley-Cohn '00, one of the actors in last night's performance, emphasized the importance of the group's role in prompting discussion on campus.

"We don't want to give our opinions. The goal is to promote dialogue," he said.

This is Calling It Rape's second performance at Harvard this year.

"With the recent interest in the subject of rape at Harvard, we thought this was a good time to do the performance," Jones said.

Calling It Rape, directed by Anna C. Lewis '99, travels around New England encouraging students to actively confront questions of acquaintance rape.

Jones said the group addresses all aspects of sexual assault--both of men and women--and targets friends of people involved as well as the survivors and perpetrators themselves.

After acting out scenes inspired by real incidents or taken from written material, the actors led discussions with the audience.

"The discussion afterward is extremely effective. It helps to bounce ideas off actors and other students," said Suzanne C. Lye '98.

Moving Portrayals

Actors broke into tears or shook with emotion as they gave monologues and performed two-person scenes.

"The anniversary of my rape is the axis of my year, more significant than my birthday," said Mary L. Pagones '98, dramatizing "Returns of the Day" from a New York Times article by Nancy V. Raine. "An anniversary that can be only marked by silence, a silence that tastes a lot like shame."

The performance raised the much-disputed question of what constitutes rape.

One scene--performed in several fragments interspersed throughout the show and based on real situations--followed the relationship between Tyler, played by Charles C. O'Toole '97, assistant director, and Rachel, played by Fay M. Ferency '99.

After going on several dates, the two students return from a dance to Tyler's room, both heavily drunk. From this point on, their accounts of the situation differ greatly.

Tyler claims that, while initially saying no to sex, Rachel eventually did not object. According to Tyler, she became distant and rude after they had sex.

Ferency vividly portrayed Rachel's confusion, fear and feelings of conflict.

"I was practically crying, and he didn't even stop," the character said. "I was just lying there being unable to move and waiting for it to be over. I felt dirty."

Over the remainder of the performance, the audience watched Rachel evaluate the incident--her emotions starting with uncertainty and growing to hatred of Tyler and gnawing pain.

Her roommates encourage her to press charges against Tyler, but she worries that the school administration will not believe her.

Last night's performance illustrated the intense fear that victims often feel after rape.

"I can't do what I want to do with my own body because I'm the wrong sex, the wrong age, the wrong color," said Candice L. Ackerman '99, performing a poem entitled "My Rights." "I was wrong to be me."

The group also addressed sexual harassment of men by women through an excerpt from "A...My Name is Alice"--a lighter scene about a woman who responds to a man's flirtatious calls on the street.

Several of the actors have been involved in cases of sexual harassment and said that through Calling It Rape they can help others address similar emotional concerns.

Jones said he was a victim of sexual assault, while Henley-Cohn said in high school two of his close female friends accused two of his male friends of rape.

"They were close friends of mine. Because I believed in [all of] them I didn't know who to believe," Henley-Cohn said.

"I think Calling It Rape has helped me to better deal with [the issues surrounding rape]. It has taught me to recognize some of the issues," he added.

Henley-Cohn performed in a scene taken from a transcript provided by Yale rape response hotline, dramatizing a man's recollection of being raped by another man.

Students at the performance said it was very moving and effective in prompting them to think about acquaintance rape.

"I especially liked the vignette format. It shows that there are many different types of rape," Lye said. "It hits you very quickly that this is a serious subject."