ZOE KIRIAZIS
Staff Writer
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. S.T.E.P.S, a peer education group, presented their semester off-stage presentation titled, “When Words Fail Us,” on Wednesday, April 12 as part of their Spring Has Sprung week.
Their presentation, through movement and original poems, displayed the warnings, realities and aftershocks someone might experience in an unhealthy relationship. The presentation represented emotional, physical and sexual abuse during and after the relationship.
Sophomore acting major Anna Dempf and theatre arts major Shana Gordon co-headed the presentation with the goal of depicting growth in self-acceptance, love and becoming a survivor despite being in a toxic relationship.
“We wanted it to be emotional and real, as well as educational and informative … This year we took more of an emotional route, but I think that’s kind of nice for our campus to see,” said Dempf.
Dempf further explained their use of “devising theatre” to tell the stories heard at off-stage. Devising theatre is a collaborative piece of theatre where a group will create the script and story together.
“Devising theatre can be anything. It can come from anything. It can be ideas, concepts, it opens you to anything you can include, images, multimedia and whatever you want,” said Dempf.
Although Gordon has not taken the devising theatre course, she felt it was the right direction to go in if they chose to tell personal stories in their off-stage presentation.
“We didn’t want a fake story. We wanted people, if they were comfortable, to open up about their own personal experiences … it would be really emotionally taxing, but it would also be a way to heal,” said Gordon.
Stories shared that ranged from monologues, trios and two presentations had a group reading stories while two people performed movement. “You cannot own me. You did not win,” “I am a survivor,” “I am loved. I am capable” and “I am at peace with me” were just a few of the powerful statements made throughout the presentation.
Dempf and Gordon agreed that this style of storytelling would be suitable for almost all the topics that S.T.E.P.S covers in their presentations. Many audience members have not seen an off-stage presentation that incorporated storytelling through movement and real stories in previous semesters.
Cynthia Racz, junior arts administration major and member of S.T.E.P.S, commended students on opening up about their own stories in off-stage this semester.
“I thought it was really deep. I think it really hit emotions people don’t talk about,” said Racz.