This week, justArts spoke with Anneke Reich ’13, who is now working with Speak About It, a theatrical organization that deals with sexual consent awareness. Speak About It will also perform during First-year Orientation.

JustArts: Can you tell me a little bit about your studies at Brandeis? 

Anneke Reich: I double majored in Theater and American Studies. I initially thought I was going to be a Music major. I was definitely really interested in getting an education in urban studies, but I didn’t really know where that would put me. And it ended up being American Studies because you could kind of design what you want. I love doing that. I ended up not doing music and sort of switching gears to theater because theater used to be a big part of my life when I was younger, in high school but I was very serious originally about music… [In Speak About It] I was able to combine my interests in performance and in education.

JA: Can you describe what the Speak About It show looks like? 

AR: It covers a lot of ground. I think it is very impressive. Basically we cover a lot of ground and talk a lot about what it means to have a healthy relationship and healthy encounters. And a lot of it focuses on consent and what consent means and about really emphasizing the fact that consent is not the absence of “no” but an enthusiastic “yes,” which isn’t clear to a lot of people. And I think things are changing in our culture—slowly but surely. But also the show talks about sexual assault because something that I feel very strongly about is that you can’t heal everything with positivity. You have to give people voices [that] have been denied it in the past … I love that the show spends time focusing on people’s stories. 

JA: How did you get involved in Speak About It? 

AR: So to be honest, this is not the most interesting story. Because basically I auditioned at Stage Source, which pretty much has all the information about all the auditions that are going on and has this annual gigantic audition… So I auditioned at StageSource and [Speak About It] contacted me. And what was cool was their audition process isn’t like a normal audition. I was Skyping with them. And before I even read through any monologues, I had to talk to them and talk to them about why I connected to the organization, why I’m passionate about the issues that Speak About It deals with so it was a job interview, it wasn’t an audition initially. And then the callbacks were the auditions. 

JA: What is your favorite part of the show?  

AR: There is this piece of the show where I am having this back-and-forth dialogue with this guy… and he is playing a version of himself. We all play different versions of ourselves. He’s acting like he’s new to a lot of issues that I’m introducing. And we’re having a dialogue where he’s asking me questions and he’s saying it back to me but in his own language—affirming it back at me like, “this is what you’re getting at right?” I just feel like it’s a realistic conversation that friends would have. Because the thing about the show is that it really helps people who are in college figure out how to have conversations with each other, not just see a show about it and not talk about it. So I think that that piece really which I am part of really encourages and really simulates what the dialogue would look like with a friend … I feel like it’s something refreshing for people to see. 

JA: What do you hope new students get out of the show?   

AR: Most importantly, most people who have ever felt silenced about any experience that they’ve had (even if it’s people who haven’t been silenced in this sort of epic way, but silenced in which they just say, “something happened to me and I didn’t quite feel right but I don’t think there’s a place for me to think that it was wrong), I really hope that every person at Brandeis feels empowered who sees the show and the conversations they have about it afterword and the right to speak out about it and do whatever it is they want to do to make it heard and make their community better… I hope that people feel empowered to really think about what it means to build exciting and fun communities and that it takes some effort but the pay-offs are so real and so amazing.