Staging Trauma-Based Plays: Ensuring the Physical and Mental Well-Being of Female Performers

Abstract

This project contains a reflection on the process of performing How To Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla as a senior project. It also reflects on the artistic goals I set out with at the end of junior year and the accomplishment of those goals by the end of senior year. The research essay discusses two productions mounted at Purchase College, How To Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla and The Conduct of Life by Maria Irene Fornes that both center on trauma-based content. The essay dives into the measures production teams and female performing artists must take to ensure the safety of the performers when mounting plays that deal specifically with sexual assault. Finally, I include an actor's portfolio of roles I performed over the last few years at SUNY Purchase.