Second year playwright Rachel Bykowski has just won the prestigious Trisolini Fellowship to help with her thesis play “Voodoo Doll”! The Post writes, “The annual Anthony Trisolini Graduate Fellowship is one of OHIO’s five “Named Fellowships,” which recognize meritorious students and offer a stipend, plus a year of full tuition.” Here is the link to the fellowship site. Congrats Rachel!!
Here’s the abstract for her thesis play:
When people discuss sexual assault it is always after the act occurs. The “no means no” argument has been discussed to the point of exhaustion and waiting until after the act occurs is too late. My thesis play will demonstrate how the patriarchal system teaches men from a young age to view women as objects and reveals the violence that follows this conditioning.
The play follows two fraternity brothers helping their friend Darren recuperate from a break-up with his girlfriend Emily. The two friends concoct a makeshift Voodoo ritual using a blow-up doll. This doll allows Darren to take out all of his frustrations no matter how violent. In the end, it is revealed that Emily was raped the same night as the Voodoo ritual. By conditioning Darren to view Emily as doll and not a human, did this give Darren permission assault Emily? The Trisolini Fellowship will allow me to research how the objectification of women creates rape culture.
