Characters:
Maille-Rose: Narrator, various characters
Emily: Narrator, various characters
Jess: UVA Administration, various characters
Setting:
Rotunda courtyard with green tables + chairs. Present day. Round tables are pushed together and organized in row. Namecards are placed at various seats around the table. These include:
UVA Administration
Enslaved Woman
Resident Advisor
Sorority Member
Fraternity Member
Sabrina Erdely (reporter)
Jia Tolentino (reporter)
Kelly
Props:
Rolling Stone magazine
Namecards
Emily and Maille-Rose enter (as themselves) and address the
Audience.
Emily:
Hi, I’m Emily.
Maille-Rose:
And I’m Maille-Rose.
Emily:
And we are two-
Maille-Rose:
Of the four thousand four hundred and ninety four white women enrolled at UVA.
Emily:
In case you were wondering…
Maille-Rose:
There are six hundred and sixty African American women here.
Emily:
We’re not trying to speak for them.
Maille-Rose:
But at a school where 55% of the student body is female…
Jess enters, sits in UVA Administration seat.
Jess [UVA Administration]:
Overall, female enrollment exceeded male enrollment for the first time in fall 1995 and has continued to do so ever since.
Maille-Rose and Emily:
(to administration) Why aren’t we listened to?
Jess [UVA Administration]:
The University was in crisis mode.
Emily sits in Sabrina Erdely seat, Maille-Rose in RA seat. Emily hands Maille-Rose a magazine.
Emily [Sabrina Erdely]:
“A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” November 19, 2014.
Maille-Rose reads from the magazine.
Maille-Rose [RA]:
I remember where I was when the article came out.
Emily [Sabrina Erdely]:
“No one has time to date. People just hook up.”
Maille-Rose [RA]:
I was in between classes in New Cabell. I read the article in one of those stairway study halls.
Emily [Sabrina Erdely]:
Now, climbing the frat-house stairs with Drew, Jackie felt excited...The room was pitch-black inside.
Maille-Rose [RA]:
(clearly reading from the article) People were saying things like…
Emily [Sabrina Erdely}:
“Shut up.”
Maille-Rose [RA]:
“Grab its motherfucking leg.”
Emily [Sabrina Erdely]:
“What, she’s not hot enough for you?”
Maille-Rose [RA]:
“We all had to do it, so you do, too.”
Both stand, resume narrator roles.
Emily:
It was shocking.
Maille-Rose:
It was sensational.
Emily:
There was a Board of Visitors meeting, a rally, a memorial.
Jess sits in Fraternity Member seat, Emily in Sorority Member seat, Maille-Rose in RA seat.
Jess [Fraternity Member]:
All fraternal organizations and associated social activities were suspended until the following semester.
Jess stands.
Emily [Sorority Member]:
I just remember everyone being really upset about boys bid night because we weren’t allowed to go out. Apparently we’d get in trouble, or something. People were telling us what we could and couldn’t do and I think people did view it as an almost like anti-feminist thing.
Emily stands.
Maille-Rose [RA]:
It was a very charged atmosphere on grounds.
Emily:
People started saying…
Both:
There is a problem with how this school handles sexual assault.
Jess sits in UVA Administration seat.
Jess [Administration]:
We have recently adopted several new initiatives and policies aimed at fostering a culture of reporting and raising awareness of the issues. We have been taking a leadership role on issues regarding sexual misconduct and violence. The HoosGotYourBack initiative, part of the Not On Our Grounds awareness campaign, was developed and launched in collaboration with students and with local Corner Merchants to increase active bystander behavior. A number of other initiatives are also planned for the spring. Among them are the implementation of a new student sexual misconduct policy and a related training program, a campus climate survey, and an in-depth bystander intervention program that will include students, faculty, and staff.
Maille-Rose [RA]: People started saying things like…
Emily:
Oh, UVA, that’s the rape school.
Both:
“Don’t send your daughters to UVA”.
Maille-Rose [RA]:
I definitely think it impacted applications that year.
Emily:
But then, It wasn’t real. Some of it...a lot of it...most of it...didn’t happen. Not the way they said it did. When and where, how and to whom.
Maile-Rose [RA]:
I at least was left with feeling in such an emotional limbo because you know, my feelings weren’t wrong, how I reacted wasn’t wrong. The you know, grief and anger I felt, I think were still valid feelings despite how the investigation to the article concluded.
Maille-Rose stands.
Emily:
Because this kind of thing does happen.
Maille-Rose:
countless times to countless women.
Emily:
Like Liz Seccuro who was actually gang raped at Phi Psi, in 1984, the same fraternity where the one from the Rolling Stone article allegedly took place.
Maille-Rose:
Or, A woman known only as “Kelly” who UVA alum and reporter Jia Tolentino interviewed in 2014…
Emily:
Or, On April 23, 1850. When three students…
Maille-Rose sits at place on table labeled “Kelly”.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
It was November 11, 2005…
Emily:
George H. Hardy, Armistead C. Eliason, and James E. Montandon, allegedly encountered a seventeen-year-old slave girl in Charlottesville…
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
I felt a little uncomfortable, but I didn’t think he was serious…
Emily:
…took her to a field…
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
I hear voices in the hallway. One of the guys said “this guy’s a necrophiliac, he likes to fuck dead girls” I realized they were talking about me.
Emily:
…and raped her.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
He was suspended for three years. The point was that he wouldn't be on campus while I was there.
Emily:
Three other students caught them in the act, and the university expelled the young men and referred the case to the civil authorities.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
They decided he was not guilty of sexual assault, but he was guilty of sexual misconduct.
Emily:
The students fled town and no charges were filed.
Maile-Rose [Kelly]:
He betrayed me. I had considered this guy kind of a friend. He would not for a second admit he had done anything wrong.
Both:
In the history of UVA, only 14 students have ever been found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Emily:
Kelly got a trial. And she had to fight pretty hard to even get that. But what about the enslaved girl?
Maile-Rose:
She didn’t even get a name in the documents. What those men did to her took away her name.
Emily:
We can’t speak for her.
Maile-Rose:
But she was never even given a chance to.
Jess sits in Administration seat.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
Then comes the question…
Jess [Administration]:
Do you want to press charges?
Jess moves to Fraternity Member seat.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
I don’t know...People will say…
Jess [Fraternity Member]:
Don’t say anything.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
People will say-
All:
You’re lying.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
He would say…
Jess [Fraternity Member]:
I asked you, you said yes, you don’t remember.
Emily sits down at Jia Tolentino seat. Jess moves to Administration seat.
Emily [Jia Tolentino]:
So, the Title IX trial.
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
11am to 10pm and deliberation the day after.
Emily [Jia Tolentino]:
What’s it like?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
They kept asking me all these questions. Questions they weren’t asking him.
Jess [Administration]:
Are you gay?
Emily [Interviewer]:
Why?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
They figured if I didn’t like dick I would have been less likely to have consented. They asked things like…
Jess [Administration]:
Have you ever cheated on a boyfriend?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
No.
Jess [Administration]:
Have you ever had sex with multiple people at the same time?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
No.
Jess [Administration]:
How many sexual partners have you had?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
Those kinds of things are explicitly prohibited by Title IX.
Jess [Administration]:
Why the hell would you drink so much? Why?
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
I’m an alcoholic. I know that now.
Jess [Administration]:
Are you sure you didn’t have sex with this man, and you don’t want to admit that you aren’t a “good girl?”
Maille-Rose [Kelly]:
No, that’s not what I’m saying. I am saying I was raped...I started asking myself...things like “Did I deserve this?”
A pause. All stand and push in their chairs.
Emily:
2014.
Maille-Rose:
2005.
Emily:
1984.
Maille-Rose:
1850.
Emily:
Narratives are lost all the time.
Maille-Rose:
Sexual assault is not just a UVA issue, but UVA is where this issue has come to the forefront. The University of Virginia is a school historically known for its powerful student body. The Hoos of UVA have always rallied when a change was needed. We still stand as one of the top schools in the nation, and we can be the face of change. Let us be an example, and not a failure. Let us stand with survivors.
Jess:
It’s 2019.
Emily:
What’s changed?
Maille-Rose:
What hasn’t?
Jess:
Who’s at the table?
Emily:
Who isn’t?
Emily and Maille-Rose exits. Jess sits at Administration seat.
Pause.
Jess exits.
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