Play to provoke, educate
By Kate Juergens
The Flat Hat
Warning: the March 28 production of "Jane: Abortion and the Underground" may cause intellectual indignation, heated discussion, activist sentiment and other things that may be hazardous to your complacency. Those who are looking for mere entertainment should go to the movies instead. However, those who wish to be provoked by an obscure story about a piece of history on the verge of being forgotten should definitely attend this dramatic reading.
The women's studies department and a new group on campus called Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood are sponsoring the reading of this controversial play by Paula Kamen. The show deals with the topic of abortion. Supporters hope to raise awareness of women's rights and provoke discussion on an issue that, according to English professor Jenny Putzi, typically gets hushed up.
"Our culture is still really hostile to the fact that women can have abortions," Putzi said. "It's a big dirty secret. We want to make it an issue that we can talk about."
Putzi is the faculty advisor for Vox, a group that seeks to educate women and men about their reproductive rights, and provide them with access to contraception. Besides "Jane," Vox is sponsoring several events this semester, including a letter-writing campaign and a campaign to make emergency contraception more easily available to students on campus.
About half of the cast members of "Jane" are involved with Vox. According to Putzi, the players consist of "an interesting combination of theater people and activist people."
The play tells the story of a group of Chicago women who in 1965 began referring women to doctors who would perform abortions.
"This was a time when illegal abortions were very popular and incredibly dangerous," Putzi said.
The group who would later call themselves "Jane" made abortions more accessible to women by lowering the cost of the operations and providing counseling.
"[They would also make] sure the women were OK afterwards," Putzi said.
The movement grew in popularity and soon the group was listing its services in the phone book under the entry "Jane How." In the decade before Roe vs. Wade, the women of Jane promoted and later even performed thousands of illegal abortions.
Seven women in Jane were arrested in 1972 but had not yet come to trial when the Supreme Court passed Roe vs. Wade Jan. 22, 1973, legalizing abortion.
According to Putzi, this play is important because Americans today have forgotten what it was like for women to have abortions before Roe vs. Wade.
"It's important to understand where we come from," she said. "Conceivably, we could go back to this."
The production of "Jane: Abortion and the Underground" is co-directed by senior David Garrett and Veronica Moreno, a junior. Moreno, president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance on campus, said that the issue that this play deals with is particularly relevant now.
"I think this play is important because it talks about a topic that is very sensitive, especially now with a lot of legislation that is in debate," Moreno said. "It's been made clear that Roe vs. Wade has come under fire."
Moreno hopes that this show will encourage discussion among students.
"I'm hoping people will hear this show out," she said. "We're here to bring a bit of history to light and to have it examined. We want to present this history and let people think about it for themselves."
According to publicity director junior Beth Ann Bruno, there is no question that this play will make people think.
"It's not just a play," Bruno said. "It's an activist piece."
Bruno hopes that everyone interested in women's rights will see this show.
"I highly encourage males and females who are interested in preserving reproductive rights and not reversing the progress that the women's movement has made in the last 30 years to come out to a Vox meeting or to come see the 'Jane' showing on March 28," she said.
Admission will be $2 or $3, and proceeds will be donated to a charity such as Planned Parenthood. The showing will be held March 28 in Ewell Recital Hall at 7 p.m.
Vox meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Putzi encourages students to contact her at jlputz@wm.edu if they are interested in participating.