UCF Rising! Applied Bystander Prevention Workshop

Developed in partnership with UCF Victim Services and the School of Performing Arts, this bystander prevention workshop combines theatrical skills with victim advocacy and prevention training. Selections from Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues and One Billion Rising will precede the workshop.

Community Impact Statement:

Implemented through performance and forum theatre, we aim to foster a community of leaders and game changers in a hands-on “practice for life.” Participants learn and discuss social topics pertaining to sexual and domestic violence, while developing preventative skills that encourage proactive and reactive social behaviors in an effort to reduce sexual assault and stalking rates on college campuses through performative and creative based activities.

The Workshop:

This workshop intertwines the ideologies and theories of the creative and legal justice worlds, and is rooted in the methodologies of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.

The workshop was created by School of Performing Arts graduate student Elizabeth Fay and faculty member Sybil St. Claire, in partnership with UCF Victim Services advocate Samantha Vega. It has been used in a number of community training sessions throughout campus including UCF School of Performing Arts, Campus Peace Coalition, and ROTC Army branch.

Participants:

Elizabeth Fay (Workshop Creator) is a University of Central Florida MA Theatre Studies graduate student with a bachelor’s degree in theatre and cinema studies. She is a produced playwright and has directed a number of productions for Rude Mechanical Productions, The Palm Beach State Players Club, and Project Spotlight. Her most recent directing credits include A Good Idea by Alexandrew Recore, Blossoms and Six/Five by Sarah Schreck, and UCF Victim Services’s annual production of The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. For two years, Elizabeth has worked in partnership with UCF Victim Services to create a hands-on training workshop that implements performance skills in combination with advocacy training to combat interpersonal personal power based violence on campus. She hopes to continue expanding this work in an effort to educate, advocate, reduce and prevent sexual and domestic violence throughout as many communities as she can reach.

Sybil St. Claire (Workshop Co-Creator) is an Associate Lecturer of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, where she co-created one of only six MFAs in the nation in Theatre for Young Audiences. She is an American Association of University Women Fellow, a union director, and an internationally produced and published dramatic writer who has received special Congressional recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives for being a “driving force in youth theatre.”

Sybil is an award-winning educator whose work is rooted in community creation/engagement and in finding the medicine in our stories through the lens of Theatre for Social Change. Her experience runs the gamut from theatre for the deaf and LGBTQ+ agitprop to sharing immersive and transformative theatrical experiences with rape survivors, children in foster care, the police, ROTC, and terminally ill pediatric patients. She has been working in conjunction with UCF’s Victim Services to create theatre for social change workshops that augment and ignite Bystander Activation Training.

Though diverse, her work shares a unifying thread, that of empowering others to live their best lives.

Samantha Vega (Green Dot Coordinator, Victim Advocate, UCF Victim Services, Program Coordinator/Trainer, Facilitator)

Lauren Valle (Victim Advocate, UCF Victim Services, Program Trainer, Facilitator)

Ximena Gonzalez (Actor, Workshop Facilitator) is a junior Theatre Studies B.A. student. Originally from Venezuela, her previous credits include Old One in Six over Five, Rosaura in Life is a Dream at UCF Celebrates the Arts, Mariane in Tartuffe, Natalia in A Marriage Proposal with Bagazos Theatre Group, and Maria Bolivar in Que Ayudaita ni que Ocho Cuartos!, a monologue that she wrote. She also participated in Project Spotlight’s 10-minute play competition in the play Waiting Room and in Vampire as the assistant director.

Elizabeth Calvert (Co-Director, Workshop Facilitator) is a senior at the UCF studying Theatre Studies BA. Elizabeth worked on shows with Project Spotlight such as Biodegradable Seagulls by Alex Hehr, A Good Idea by Alexandrew Recore, Waiting by Matt Ubl, It’s A Match by Mareya Norris, First Miss by Sarah Schreck. She was nominated for SDC Student Director Award for her work on Theatre UCF’s Romeo and Juliet and represented UCF at a 10-minute festival at Region 4 KCACTF. She is also the upcoming Artistic Director of Project Spotlight.

Erin Hernandez (Actor, Workshop Facilitator) is a Junior BA Theatre Studies Major at UCF with a double minor in history and education. She has participated in the Project Spotlight One Act Festival and 10 minutes play competition. Past Credits include The Laramie Project, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Change.

Ana Urbini (Actor, Facilitator)