Roleplay

Last year, the results of Tulane University's Climate Survey on Sexual Misconduct revealed that 41% of female students and 19% of male students reported being sexually assaulted during their time on campus. 

In response, a team of fifteen student performers joined up with New Orleans theatre company Goat in the Road Productions and spent over a year developing material for an original theater piece based on their own experiences with sexual violence, racism, homophobia, addiction, and mental health issues—all in hopes of spurring dialogue, healing, and cultural evolution. 

The result, to be unveiled this month, is Roleplay, a theatrical work that follows eleven students through their sophomore year of college and explores themes of love, sex, power, and consent. 

Roleplay will be presented at Tulane University's Lupin Theatre (150 Dixon Hall Annex) from Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Free, but reservations are required at goatintheroadproductions.org. 

Throughout Roleplay's development, documentary filmmaker and project co-originator Katie Mathews has also collaborated with a group of professional and student filmmakers to document the process in an effort to illustrate the ways in which art can be a transformational mechanism for confronting these issues. The film is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2021.