SHENECA SHARPE
Staff Writer
The innovative production of “SEVEN,” featuring some of Fredonia’s and Jamestown’s very own, such as President Virginia Horvath and Jamestown Community College Vice President for Academic Affairs Marilyn Zagora, will be shown in Rosch Recital Hall for the first time. The first act of “SEVEN” will be performed at SUNY Fredonia on Oct. 8 at 6 p.m., while the second act is performed at Jamestown Community College on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.
The performance of “SEVEN” will entail the true stories of seven women explaining their experiences of global abuse. The first act entails monologues of women stories of abuse globally, whereas the second act shares interviews of women in Chautauqua County who are survivors of abuse.
Both acts show that abuse doesn’t happen thousands of miles from home, but in your backyard. Abuse is silent when nobody is paying attention. “SEVEN” wants the viewers to start paying attention for signs and look for ways to help.
These are the anthems of women from seven different countries, and the monologues are based on their interviews, some of which resulted in death threats. The first act monologues are from women who reside in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan and Russia.
Horvath, environmental sciences professor Sherri Mason and Fredonia graduate Caeli Faisst expressed their heartache in performing these women’s stories. There is also an understanding that this is something that they must do in order to continue the conversation to stop abuse globally and locally.
“I want students, well, all audience members really, to watch this play and feel a call to action. I want them to hear these women’s testimonies and be empowered to combat the injustices they see or know of in the world. The seven women we interviewed and whose stories we are telling, they took the bad situations life threw at them and took control. I want audience members to watch this play and leave knowing they can do the same,” said Faisst, talking about the second act of “SEVEN.”
The main goal of this play is to create a spark in the audience members to continue the actions to stop abuse, not just for women, but any gender.
“Everybody has a story, you don’t know their background, and then in a sense, you lack empathy. ‘SEVEN’ is for anybody who has a story, so that people who don’t walk in their shoes can finally show some empathy,” said Mason.
Horvath shared her first sighting of abuse with her first teaching job. As Horvath was grading papers, almost all of them shared some form of abuse with the students, and how the students deemed it as a normal way of life.
“So, I taught writing, and many of the students would write about the abuse that would go on in their households, and they didn’t realize that this isn’t how life should be. It was just accepted that sexual or physical abuse was an everyday norm,” said Horvath
This position made Horvath’s decision to be a speaker for “SEVEN” quite simple. It was a necessity in making this a conversation that people can’t avoid and to make this an issue that people actually face and talk about.
“SEVEN” has high hopes to be an emotional, heart-wrenching and eye-opening experience. These monologues could help to create a thought for someone who may be as familiar as your next door neighbor as even they could have a story you’d never suspect, even if they’re screaming on the inside for help.