Sometimes it takes a monologue to get a real conversation going.
Sunday night, the "Me Too Monologues" did exactly that, and roughly 250 students and faculty packed into the Richard White Lecture Hall to hear a series of true stories about issues of race, culture and ethnicity written by members of the Duke community and performed as monologues by students.
"The show was really eye-opening," sophomore Tafadzwa Chaunzwa said. "They covered stuff that you encounter every day, but don't really stop to think about."
The show, sponsored by the Center for Race Relations and part of the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration weekend, featured 17 individual stories that had been submitted by members of the Duke community to be acted out as monologues by a group of 10 students. Each story covered real-life student experiences ranging from dealing with racial stereotypes on campus to interracial dating to the perception of Islam in the United States.
"This is another example of the wonderful work done by the Center for Race Relations and an important part of the dialogue we need to continue to foster at Duke," Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki, who attended the show, wrote in an e-mail.
Junior Adam Barron, the director of the show, presented the material to audience members as a fictional course entitled "Sociology 101: Contemporary Race Relations in the United States." As attendees walked in, they were each handed a course syllabus that served as both a program for the show and an explanation for the goals of the "course."
"In case you haven't noticed, this is not Econ 51, and you will not have the luxury of sitting back and feigning interest while you check your Facebook messages with your laptop," said Barron, who played the professor of the fictional class.
And conjuring the energy to stay awake did not appear to be a problem for students, said senior Alfred Miller, who performed two of the monologues.
"The audience response was amazing, and they were so responsive to what we were doing on stage," he said. "I couldn't believe the number of 'oohs' and 'aahs' and 'mms' and the amount of laughter."
Beyond just entertaining the audience, the "Me Too Monologues" also offered everyone a chance to connect with the material, Barron said.
"I'm just really grateful that this show was as big a success as it was because these issues need to be talked about and I couldn't be happier that we had the turnout and the reaction that we did," Barron said. "I feel like a lot of Duke students walked away having learned about the community and more about themselves."
Attracting a diverse audience, the show seemed to have a wide appeal.
"Every single person could find at least one story here that they could relate to," junior Prashant Swaminathan said.
The audience's enthusiastic response to the monologues made it clear that by the end of the show, the "course" had more than fulfilled its goals, said junior Priyanka Chaurasia, co-president of the Center for Race Relations and producer of the show.
"Our main mission was to say, 'Listen, engage, ask a question,'" she said. "And I think the show surpassed my wildest expectations."
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