Directed by Jenna Dern
Stage Managed by Rita Navarro
Assistant Stage Managed by Krystle Montgomery and Chloris Li
Assistant Directed by Kristina Stahl
Scenic Design by Michael Wogulis
Costume Design by Arlene Banuelos and Samantha Englander
I am intrigued by the ways that theatre expands and challenges the ways that communities engage with health topics. Throughout my undergraduate career as a double major in Theatre and Public Health, I have become increasingly interested in works that are not created for the sake of health education, but may inevitably promote it, through the themes that they address.
During my final year at UC San Diego, I completed an Honors Thesis in the Department of Theatre & Dance while directing Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel. Though the major conflict of the play revolves around one teenage girl’s attempts to have a do-it-yourself abortion, it addresses a number of other themes, including friendship, coming-of-age, the politicization of women’s bodies, and sexuality. A New York Times review encapsulates the intricacies of this play best, highlighting that it is “about the complexities of friendship and the fears of the future that grip kids arriving at the threshold of adulthood. It is not — repeat not — an Abortion Play in capital letters, in the solemn, soapy manner of many a made-for-TV movie.”
Throughout the production process, I measured changes in attitudes and knowledge about abortion amongst my cast and production team, using traditional quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The data suggest that the subjects experienced some positive change in abortion knowledge and attitudes while working on the play.
As one actor summed up in a post-show talkback:
I feel like this play is even more important with everything that’s been happening in the news and [politicians] trying to prevent abortions, basically, hoping to take it to the Supreme Court and hoping to overturn Roe v. Wade, which I feel like is every young woman’s biggest fear. Every girl I’ve talked to, best friends, we’ve all had the pregnancy dream, you know that like horrible nightmare where you don’t know why, maybe you’ve never had sex before, but you’re pregnant and terrified. Everyone’s had that nightmare, and I just wish every [person] in the government right now could come and see this play, and see Amy go through the pain that she has to go through.
She’s 16 years old, she should not have to go through all that. It’s gonna happen, whether it’s legal or not. She got it online. That’s totally not legal. But she didn’t have to go through all that pain if she was gonna do it. She wasn’t on medication, I’m sure the Tylenol barely did anything.
I don’t know how you can see someone go through that much pain and then not want her to be in a safe, comfortable environment to carry that through. I don’t know how you can see someone go through that and not come out changed.