Preforming in the Key Note presentation at the Wilson College was a rewarding experience. I was able to take part in an event that would lay heavily on the hearts and minds of others for the benefit of spreading an important message. Dr. Betty Ellzey used The Rude Mechanicals to inform the students and teachers of the Wilson College that discrimination against minorities concerning race and sexual identification is still alive and well.
The theater troupe performed three different versions of “The Woman Taken in Adultery.” This play is the recount of a woman being tortured by her townspeople for a sin before being spared by Jesus who is famously quoted saying “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
In our three plays we focused on discrimination against race, sexual preference and sexual identity. I preformed as an accuser in the race play, where I had to hurl racial slurs at my fellow performers in an attempt to show the participants just how violent our world has been and still is to this day.
When I was not preforming, I was able to look out onto the crowd and watch their faces contort in disgust, sadness, and compassion. Their eyes were entranced by the Rude Mechanicals performance and when we had completed the plays the auditorium was filled with applause and the audience members came down to thank us and give us praise. Dr. Ellzey was given her own roaring applause for putting this presentation together and bringing a new founded awareness to the plight of minorities at this time.
These three plays were scheduled to be preformed at Shepherd University this semester but due to the threat of Coronavirus and the switch to online classes for the rest of the semester they have been canceled.
Dr. Ellzey now hopes to preform them in May of this year.
A Commentary of the Rude Mechanicals performance at Wilson College
