Voice of the Voiceless

Fall semester of my junior year of college I took a class called Solo Performance taught by Jessica Del Vecchio and Ingrid De Sanctis. Throughout the semester students worked on creating a solo piece to perform in the Forbes Center for Performing Art’s Studio Theatre. This meant we played the roles of the playwright, actor, director, dramaturg, and designer.

Most students chose to write about themselves or about something that has affected them over the years. However, knowing I would be given the chance to perform for the public, I wanted to give a voice to those who don’t have one: animals. The stories I could share about my life were not as important to me as sharing how harmful animal cruelty is. At that point of my life, I had been vegetarian for almost five years and would go vegan about once or twice a week. I had done a ton of research on the meat, egg, and dairy industry so I figured I could use my knowledge for my script.

The evolution of this piece was something I was most proud of. I started with the idea of utilizing the spaces animals in the meat industry are confined to. I ended up doing the math and figuring out how much space I would have to live in if I were a pig in those conditions. With this number, I cut up a piece of red satin to squeeze onto for the start of my piece.

I did not reveal to the audience what my characters were until over halfway of my performance. I personified the animals I portrayed (pig, cow, dog, and chicken) to allow audiences to feel empathy towards them.

After I performed this at JMU, I had many audience members come up to me and tell me they were going to try going vegetarian. A classmate even went vegetarian after seeing my piece progress throughout the semester. Something I heard a lot was people saying things like, “oh I would give up meat, but I love bacon too much.” My response is always, give up all meat except for *bacon.* This is one of the best ways for people to make a difference.

A few months later, I was asked by one of my professors if I would be willing to reprise my performance at Eastern Mennonite University. A few of my classmates also went to perform and we had a wonderful turnout along with a talkback afterwards.