Student Body and Sexuality and the Body Week
Sexuality and the Body Week is a series of events focused on having conversations about sexuality. So often the christian community struggles to talk about sex and sweeps it under the rug. This week serves as a place to break down layers of shame and isolation through panels, events, and chapel speakers. This year the theatre department partnered with this program to offer our production of Student Body to the campus for free. We had six performances that were divided by dorm buildings to allow for pod seating. After each performance, we invited students into a talkback with the director, artistic director, title IX coordinator, and various guests so that the students would have a place to ask questions and continue to think critically about sexual assault and harassment on college campuses. The floor leaders were invited to our final dress rehearsal and offered a study guide so that they could be prepared to lead their floors in small group discussions following the performances. By offering these different options of reflection, we sought to give audiences the space to process the show how they need to without the pressure to talk in front of everyone or to be left without a safe space for vulnerability.
Talkback Reflection
After every performance of Student Body during our campus-wide Sexuality and the Body week, various community leaders in related fields came to watch the show and answer questions for the students in the audience. The audience members were offered slips of paper and pencils to drop of anonymous questions and were also welcome to ask questions out loud. There were sometimes moments of quietness and apprehension before the conversations got started but, during every talkback, important and challenging questions were posed to the panel that served as both a bridge to connect the events of the play to Taylor University and a system of fact-checking and correcting faulty arguments made by characters in the play.