The Department of Performing & Media Arts is pleased to present a reading of The Good Victim, a new original play by Gloria Oladipo, a senior in the college of Arts & Sciences majoring in Government with a minor in English. It will premiere on Friday, April 30th at 7:30 p.m. with a one-time screening. Reserve your free ticket at schwartztickets.com.
The Good Victim uses the story of a typical college relationship to explore the underbelly of sexual assault, racism, and accountability among peers.
"This is my first time writing a full-length play in a non-academic setting, so I've been trying to be as malleable with the writing process as possible," said Oladipo, explaining that "the most difficult part of the process has been the logistics of managing how to put on the play given COVID-19 and the different precautions around that." She admitted "it is stressful having to be a writer, director, and producer all at the same time, but it's also a really liberating process: to be in control of my material in such a complete way, from the way it's written to exactly how it will look when it debuts."
"I want the audience to see the universality in the story of The Good Victim. Obviously, it's important to recognize the way that Black women specifically deal with sexual violence and how we navigate different systems and circumstances when trying to get accountability for ourselves and others. But the themes around hope, hopelessness, community, and more are something that anyone can relate to, whether they've been through this on a college campus or not. Getting 'justice' or 'closure' in whatever form isn't an issue limited to these spaces, or even the issue of sexual assault. It's something that all of us contend with, whether that be institutionally or interpersonally. A victim doesn't look like one kind of person. A perpetrator of sexual violence, and violence in general, doesn't either. We need to think about the factors that allow these kinds of situations to materialize and really work on how we can all be better when it comes to stamping out sexual violence and supporting survivors and ourselves through the healing/accountability process."
Gloria Oladipo is the director and playwright of “The Good Victim.” She has done other writing projects in the PMA department, including writing in the “24 Hour Festival” and the “10-Minute Play Festival.” As a freshman, her first play, “The Forever War,” received 2nd place at the Heermans-McCalmon Competition for Dramatic Writing. Outside of playwriting, Gloria is a freelance writer who has been featured in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Bloomberg CityLab, and other publications. She also works as a script reader for The Public Theater in NYC. In her free time, Gloria enjoys playing with her rabbit, Pretzel, and teaches women veterans of color how to playwright as part of a project she developed in partnership with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, IL.
