Trinity University's drama department has tackled a challenging production. It's called Good Kids, but it's based on something that's not good. Kyle Gillette is director of theater at Trinity University.
"It's inspired kind of loosely by the Steubenville rape case. It deals with what leads up to an assault. How different stereotypes or beliefs about gender and sexual roles play into it."
But does something yanked from the headlines result in good theater? Gillette says an emphatic yes.
"The way Naomi Iizuka, the playwright structures it, you have this non-linear storytelling that keeps circling back around the events. You get it from different sides because you get different memories of the same moment," he said. "It also has a lot of humor. It's crisp and precise."
Gillette says that the play offers up critical questions both for college students and their parents.
"Questions of rape culture. How assault intersects with such things as alcohol. How social media has changed the way people find out about assault. The internet here becomes a double-edged sword," he said.
Several of the performances have what he calls talk backs--where experts in several areas stay after to have a dialog on what's been presented.
"We encourage people to stay for the talk back and contribute to it. Yeah, it couldn't be more relevant," he said.
Good Kids opens Friday, running through the weekend, and Wednesday through Saturday of next week at Trinity University.
Find more on Good Kids here.
