January 22nd, 2020

Photo of the cast of the 2019 fall production "Good Kids" in Marion Center. Photo by BRANDON UTLEY

by ANJALEIGH HART
Staff writer

​Recently, Tiffin University put on the play "Good Kids", written by Naomi Iizuka. The play was put on by Tiffin University’s Dragon Den actors.
The play is one of the most progressive and one of the most controversial plays that has ever been put on by the Tiffin University’s Dragon Den. The play has strong language and it depicts scenes that involve acts of sexual violence and is intended for mature audiences only.
The director of the play was Mika Gibson, who always works at The Ritz Theater, and also works with the local high schools theater departments, stepped in to help out Tiffin University. The previous director of the fall plays at Tiffin University recently retired, which does leave a bit of question as to who will become the new permanent director of the fall plays.
The show also did something different that had never been done after a play at Tiffin University, which is a talk-back. This means that after the show ended, there was be a few cast members and others who are qualified to answer any of the questions that the audience had on the show. This was one of the first of its kind at Tiffin University. The talk-back segment lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes after the show. Some of the cast members also shared their own comments and thoughts and personal stories that related to the concept of the play.
The play includes four male football players who are the ones who carry out the sexual assault on a girl who crashes a party on the other side of town. The play is narrated by a girl who is watching the entire assault play out on social media and is tracking the movements of each high school student involved with the incident. There are four male characters and eight female characters in the show. 

​The subject matter of this play is a very heavy subject matter, especially coming after the Steubenville rape case and the Brock Turner rape case. The play is loosely based off the Steubenville rape case, in which an intoxicated girl left a party with four football players and was repeatedly sexually assaulted. Most of these acts were streamed and documented on social media, which is also depicted within the play. This show is to shed light on sexual assault and how often this matter can occur and how often victims are blamed.
The show sheds light on sexual assault and how it is handled, and how in some cases the assailants do not even realize that they have committed a crime. It also touches upon how high schoolers may react to a sexual assault, and how some are very quick to pass judgement and victim blame. The show also brings up underage drinking and how it can affect the behaviors of high schoolers, and their actions. The last topic that the show slightly approaches is roofies. There is a part of the show that shows something being slipped into the drink of a girl, which shortly after she falls unconscious.
The play was received well by the audiences that came out each night. Each night the feedback that was given during the talk-back was positive, and the audiences expressed their appreciation for the play bringing light to the heavy topics.