Presentation sheds light onto rape and domestic violence

Misty Severi, Reporter

Rape is a growing concern for women in colleges across America, and the amount of campuses that actually do anything about these rapes is surprisingly low.

Bakersfield College’s Performing Arts Department performed a “Dramatic Reading: Violence in the Lives of Women” on April 7-8, talking about the issues of rape, sexual assault, and physical and emotional abuse to women.

Overall, the show had a full audience on April 7, and they even had to bring in extra chairs.

The program began with a talk on the statistics of rape on college campuses, with the cast taking turns reading from “Rampant Sexual Violence Against Women and Rape on College Campuses” by Joachim Hagopian, before showing a video talking about the rises in numbers of rape victims.

Victoria Colley and Carlos Noriega then performed the song “The Dark I Know Well” from the musical Spring Awakening about a girl who gets molested by her father while her mother does nothing.

Carlos Noriega and Sara Alaniz did an emotional performance of “The Inner Monologue of a Rape,” and Evan Alvarado performed a dance to “Roses” by Chain Smokers.

Victoria Colley performed four songs in total over the course of the night, including the duet. The rest of her songs included “Hello” by Evanescence, “Angels” by Within Temptation, and a heart-wrenching rendition of “Until It Happens To You” by Lady Gaga.

Other highlights of the night included Jason Glenn performing “I’m Not A Football.”

Daniel Ochoa performed two dances, one to “Flawless” by Beyonce and the other to Beyonce’s “Grown Woman,” and Lily Philips dressed in a ‘50s housewife apron singing “Say That We’re Sweethearts Again” by Virginia O’Brian.

The song “Say That We’re Sweethearts Again” is a dark comedy about an abusive relationship where the boyfriend tried to kill the girlfriend several times during the relationship, and the girlfriend (the singer of the song) doesn’t quite realize what is going on.

The night ended on a high note with the cast performing the song “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten, an upbeat, positive song about taking back your life and moving on.

The final line of the song is “and I really don’t care what anybody else believes, because I still got a lot of fight left in me.”