As part of New College of Florida’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month, [performance @ new college] produced Naomi Iizuka’s Good Kids and held performances of the play in the Black Box Theater during the last week of April.
The cast and crew worked on the production all semester as part of their coursework under the direction of Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies Diego Villada.
“This has been the most distinct experience on a production for me,” said fourth-year student Zach Hanna. “I got to see different perspectives and directorial approaches, which has been an interesting experience both educationally and as an actor in general.”
The play addresses a number of prevalent issues surrounding sexual assault. Good Kids takes place in a world where social media dominates the lives of high school students in a small Midwestern town. The provocative drama explores a sexual encounter gone wrong and its public aftermath.
“Playing a character like Chloe is probably the hardest and most important role I’ll play in my time at New College,” said second-year student Sara Recht, who plays a sexual assault victim and survivor in the play. “We hope the show comes off as a genuine representation and a mirror of how the aftermath of sexual assault can sometimes go, and hopefully spark a conversation about how to change it.”
After each performance, a panelists featuring representatives from different campus departments, including gender studies, student affairs and campus police, shared their insights related to the show’s themes.
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