Wenz, an Ashton Resident Assistant, is an actor in the upcoming play “Good Kids” at the IU Theatre.
She said her character, Amber, is a victim blamer, and that conflicts with her training as an RA.
“We know about the negative repercussions of people who’ve victim blamed and what that does to the victim,” Wenz said. “So I would never in a real life situation tell a girl or a boy who just got raped that it was their fault or that they were asking for it, but Amber does all of these things.”
When they started rehearsals for the show, Wenz said she had a hard time portraying a character that was so different from her personal beliefs.
“It’s hard because you want to resist it at first, but then you learn you have to accept it because as an actor it’s your job to put the story on the stage,” Wenz said. “This stuff does happen in real life, so I feel like I have a duty to portray that on stage in its purest form to show how that hurts other people.”
Wenz along with her fellow actors will perform in “Good Kids” at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Wells-Metz Theatre. The play follows the interaction of high school students after a sexual assault takes place at a party one night. The play is inspired by true events in the small town of Steubenville, Ohio.
In addition to the students talking about the situation throughout the show, Director and IU Theatre Department Chair Jonathan Michaelsen said the play covers many other teen-related topics as well.
“The sense of what sexual assault is and means and what consent means I think is an important issue as well,” Michaelsen said. “Following on the pattern after the case is the sense of social media and how quickly an event can be judged by millions of people not in a court of law but in the blogosphere, or cyberspace.”
Before the show and following the other performances, IU Theatre will present a panel of professionals to talk about different topics concerning sexual assault. Sarah Campbell, a graduate student working with the IU Theatre, helped to set up the different panels.
“We saw the need for something because the show deals with really heavy things, and we didn’t just want the audience to go out in the streets after the show with no way to talk about what they had just seen,” Campbell said. “We thought it would be great to have experts come in and talk with the audience members in hope that they would be able to ask questions and the experts would be able to give good information about resources available on campus.”
As a graduate student, Campbell said it was hard for her to get information about sexual assault prevention when she came to IU because she did not receive the guidance that freshmen are given during orientation.
“If the University does talk about resources, it’s more geared towards how to help your undergraduates, which is great, but there are definitely audiences at the University that aren’t receiving the information either because they don’t know where to find it or they’re just not paying attention,” Campbell said. “So I think it’s important to have that information out there.”
Michaelsen said the panels are a huge element of the message the show is trying to make in spreading awareness of the issue and how to deal with it on a college campus.
“It’s difficult I think for a university because we aren’t a court and yet we try and regulate these things and have hearing and take it seriously,” Michaelsen said. “I think we’re in the process of figuring that out, respecting the victim and if you should report this to law enforcement.”
Campbell said the individuals speaking on the panels were all very enthusiastic to participate in the collaborating with IU Theatre.
“I think they’re all great advocates, and they’re really excited to share what they do and just spread the word about either the problems with sexual violence that we have on campus but also how they can help through their offices,” Campbell said. “They’re really here to help, and any opportunity they get to do that, they’re obviously really excited.”
Although the topic of sexual ?assault is very serious, Wenz said she encourages people to come to the show because the premise is more uplifting than people might think.
“I think that’s the danger with this is if people hear about what this play is based on and the theme of the play, they’re not going to want to come to it because it is a heavy subject matter and because they feel like they’re going to get a talking to basically,” Wenz said. “It’s more experiencing this rape situation that happened in Steubenville alongside the community.”
