How I Learned to Drive, Exploring The Life of Working-Class Women in the 1960s, and Comparing Their Experience to Modern American Society

Abstract

How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel uses Li'l Bit's perspective reflecting back on her upbringing and addressing her experience with incestual pedophilia and sexual assault. Uncle Peck manipulates and sexualizes Li'l Bit from a young age. The women in Li'l Bit's life are aware of this abuse but lack the courage or proactivity to do anything about it. Once being cast as Female Greek Chorus, I wanted to understand the circumstances that women in the 1960s experienced. With my knowledge and training in theatre as an actor, I wanted to combine my acting technique with historical research to portray the lives of these women in the most genuine way possible. It is extremely important to perform this text now because the world of the play, rural 1960s America, can so easily be compared to modern day America. Women in the 1960s were challenged with discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives. Work, family, school, healthcare/medical, marital, social and more. Discrimination in one branch could lead to discrimination in another, or multiple. This mistreatment is instilled in the lives of girls and women, regardless of age. For example, one character I portrayed in the performance of this play was Lucy, the single mother of Li'l Bit who got pregnant in high school and divorced shortly after. American society views her life as less-than. Lucy's contrast is her sister, Aunt Mary. Married to Peck with no children, but a successful job and "promising" marriage. This fear is instilled in Aunt Mary because she knows about the relationship between Peck and Li'l Bit. The silence of both women contributes to the fact that sexual assault is still happening, in the story, and in modern society. There is still an unspoken stigma around confronting and accepting the acknowledgement of sexual assault. A focal part of my research is based on the correlation between social bar environment and sexual assault, and this research comes from around the same time that this play is set. I am lucky enough to use my own father's anthropological studies for this research. This play was a challenge to endure, but the experience helped me to gain a wider perspective of the topics in the play, and it brought me to a higher level of ability in facing intense material through the art of theatre. Performing and producing this play at SUNY Purchase College is important because as a community we need to acknowledge that women are in still in danger of sexual assault/harassment and discrimination. As young adults, we have the power to make changes in the future with recent "#MeToo" Movement spreading across multiple work fields. I want to dedicate my performance and thesis to the survivors of sexual assault and harassment in the SUNY Purchase College community, and to the survivors throughout the world, for the hope of healing and using our voices/stories/power to make a change.