An audience sits in a semi-circle before a group of barefoot female theater students dressed in black. The students are reciting lines of a provocative excerpt of an empowering, ancient Greek play, in which four women talk about using sex — rather, their power to abstain from it — as a tool to manipulate men. The spectators laugh easily at the sexual jokes and clap generously after the five-minute production.
This piece of “Lysistrata,” written by Aristophanes, produced by student Melanie Marshall, was the first of seven short performances at Minervana, a Students’ Stage event sponsored by Women’s Programs and Services for Women’s HERstory Week that was held in Chumash yesterday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Students’ Stage is a Cal Poly student-run theater program that aims to allow students to be actively engaged with theater.
The event lineup included another two short plays, two monologues and two musical acts by members of Students’ Stage, made up largely of Cal Poly theater majors.
Before and after the acts and during intermission, students browsed tables displaying student visual art, which included presentation boards, photography, paintings and drawings, all with an underlying feminine theme.
Following the “Lysistrata” performance was a slam poem about the continued oppression and objectification of women in America by Tiffany Daniels. A group of three then performed a scene of “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare, directed by Tonya Blanco, which centers on a heroine who disguises herself as a man.
Pianist Lucy McNamara played and sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Larry Henley, which she dedicated to every woman who feels she doesn’t matter. After intermission, two student actresses relayed a scene that showed the struggling relationship between mother and daughter in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Tia Andrews.
A self-written monologue performed by Anna Clauson was next. The piece focused on a woman mentally and emotionally suffering from a miscarriage. The last number was a musical rendition of “Halo” by Beyoncé, sung by Olivia Tenney, accompanied by McNamara on piano and three dancers.
Theater sophomore Kyle McCurdy attended the event to support several of his friends who performed.
“I really enjoyed myself,” he said. “It was really engaging.”
He noted that even though it was clear the group didn’t have much time for rehearsal, evident by the moderate use of scripts, the emphasis and messages about women were still clear and easy to interpret.
English senior Laura Brian attended the event for her women’s theater class and said the artistic female nude photography was one of her favorite parts along with the first play.
Theater sophomore Ellie Kovara, one of the managers of the event, said the opportunity to do something for this particular week helped to involve Students Stage in women’s theater.
“For this event, we really wanted to empower creativity that’s all around,” Kovara said. “The visual art is created by students and the directing is by students — that’s the focus (of Students’ Stage).”