'There were definitely people that needed to hear it'

By Liz O'Brien

Six seniors took the stage before hundreds of freshmen earlier this week to perform "Unspeakable Acts," the university's first student-run sexual assault awareness production mandatory for incoming students.

Under the guidance of Lisa Millora, former assistant dean for the Office of Student Life, the six students directed and performed the 45-minute series of monologues and dialogues aimed at raising awareness of sexual violence in a college environment.

The program was intended to educate students about a frightening reality: Every two and a half minutes, someone in America is sexually assaulted, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey. In fact, 20 to 25 percent of college women are raped during their college career, according to the American Association of University Women.

Unlike "Sex Signals," the sexual assault awareness program presented last year by a group unaffiliated with the university, "Unspeakable Acts" involved solely Santa Clara students and staff.

"This is something we've always wanted to have for the students, by the students, in the hands of the university -- something generated by Santa Clara," said senior Liam Satre-Meloy, an actor in the performance and member of One in Four, the university's sexual assault peer education group for males.

Auditions were held last spring for three female and three male parts. Rehearsals began about two weeks before the performance, and parts of the script taken from Bacchus, an online peer health education program, were rewritten to fit the Santa Clara audience.

The performance focused on recognizing sexual assault in a social environment and familiarizing freshmen with helpful resources, like counseling.

Actors performed a series of skits and monologues mirroring the Santa Clara party scene, including portrayals of female rape victims, friends of victims and even rapists themselves.

"I think the core issue is that so many people come into college so misinformed about how prevalent sexual assault and rape are in the college environment. They don't realize how much it happens," said Satre-Meloy.

Senior Greg Callaghan, an actor and co-director of the performance, said, "If we get one person to reconsider their actions," then the performance will have been worthwhile.

The change to a student-run production is part of the establishment of a more permanent sexual awareness program for freshmen, said senior Maureen McKenzie, a performer and co-director of the production.

Barbara Fraser, a professor in the theater and dance department, is currently developing such a program in her playwright's workshop. A small number of sophomores, juniors and seniors will use research and personal accounts relating to sexual assault to compose a script for next fall's program.

"We plan to premiere it here at Santa Clara. Then we'll submit it to other places to see if they're interested as well," said Fraser. Freshmen from each residential learning community attended a separate performance, with six shows in total.

Afterward, freshmen participated in post-show discussions of 20 to 50 students led by members of One in Four or Every Two Minutes, student organizations that promote sexual assault awareness and education. Senior Daniele Gardner, the president of Every Two Minutes, facilitated some of the discussion groups and said she heard "very positive feedback."

"It was so worth the time because the things that were presented were different than what I expected," said Karen Valenzuela, a freshman member of the Alpha RLC. "When you think of rape, you just think of some guy jumping out of a bush, not a party situation."

The NVAWS reports that 73 percent of rapes are perpetrated by non-strangers.

"I thought the performance was very realistically portrayed by all the actors," said freshman Michael Fritz.

Not all freshmen, however, felt the impact of the performance.

"There were definitely people that needed to hear it," said freshman Laura Signorelli, "and there were definitely people that it didn't affect -- people who needed to hear it and still didn't get it."

Contact Liz O'Brien at (408) 554-4546 or eobrien@scu.edu.