How a Chicago theater group reinvented sexual assault prevention
CHICAGO - Anthony DiNicola ducked his head into his boss' office: Did she want a bottle of water? "Why, yes," Gail Stern replied, with a grand, winking flourish, "I mean, how did you ... "
"How did I know?" DiNicola said dramatically.
"Yes," she said, breathless.
"Well, it's as if you trained me ... "
"No," Stern broke in, rueful, "it's as if - I felt entitled!"
"Let's not talk systems of privilege," DiNicola begged, "not now!"
"Of course not," Stern sighed, "never ... "
He left and she softly pulled her door closed and ... end scene.
On a recent morning, as the nation roiled with stories of sexual harassment and abuses of power occurring from Hollywood to county legislatures, as everyday people found themselves struggling to have meaningful discussions about accountability, patriarchy, non-consensual groping and non-binary gender dynamics, at Catharsis Productions in Chicago no conversation was too trivial to become a lesson on power and sexuality, and no conversation was too solemn to solicit a laugh. It's a smoothly theatrical, irreverent bunch. The role of the exploited subordinate was played by DiNicola, the company's senior educator; and the role of the entitled manipulator was played by Stern, one of Catharsis' co-founders. Theirs was a one-off show, an improvisation among colleagues.
Yet beneath that exchange was the role of Catharsis itself, which has never felt more prescient: For the past 17 years, with quiet momentum, the group has become one of the most sought after, and unlikely, sexual-assault prevention organizations in the country. What began as a theater company has become something quite complicated.
One with the ear of the U.S. military. And nearly every major college in the country.
"What this moment in time feels like to me," Stern said, seriously, "is that the rest of the world is finally wrestling with, and talking about, what we've been talking about for decades. We have friends and clients and everyone now, asking us: How did it come to this?" She smiled and sat back: "There are days I feel like the rape-explainer-in-chief."
Stern's like
