She promises not to do her impression of Betty White on SNL, but we’re never sure. We hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to find out!

For all we know, this is what will happen in Shana’s interview.

UPDATE! Here’s the link to listen to Shana’s interview on Lesbian Radio. She had fun, and we hope you’ll enjoy listening!

Planned Parenthood – more than just condoms.

Below is a list of the Op Eds that were published throughout the month, including one from our Producer, Shana on April 29th. We encourage you to browse through this list and read the thoughts of people in our community, locally and state-wide, who are working to end sexual assault.

• On Guard against sexual violence: http://arguably.bangordailynews.com/2013/03/29/people/on-guard-against-sexual-violence/
• When victims of sexual assault see justice: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/31/opinion/when-victims-of-sexual-assault-see-justice/
• (This title is misleading, but): Maine’s only sexual violence educator calls for cultural change: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/01/opinion/maines-only-male-sexual-violence-educator-calls-for-cultural-change/
• Complacency about domestic and sexual violence equals complicity: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/02/opinion/complacency-about-domestic-and-sexual-violence-equals-complicity/
• Helping sexual assault survivors: It’s their story, not ours: http://arguably.bangordailynews.com/2013/04/05/people/helping-sexual-assault-survivors-its-their-story-not-ours/
• How the military is slowly overcoming a history of sexual violence: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/07/opinion/how-the-military-is-slowly-overcoming-a-history-of-sexual-violence/
• How to support a victim of child sexual abuse: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/08/opinion/contributors/how-to-support-a-victim-of-child-sexual-abuse/
• The complex reality of preventing, responding to sexual violence: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/09/opinion/the-complex-reality-of-preventing-responding-to-sexual-violence/
• Get outraged about sexual assault: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/10/opinion/get-outraged-about-sexual-assault/
• The challenge of overcoming sexual violence in small communities: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/11/opinion/the-challenge-of-overcoming-sexual-violence-in-small-communities/
• Hospital procedures, though scary, can help sexual assault survivors heal, regain control: http://arguably.bangordailynews.com/2013/04/12/people/hospital-procedures-though-scary-can-help-sexual-assault-survivors-heal-regain-control/
• Lessons learned after sexual exploitation of Deaf students in Maine: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/14/opinion/lessons-learned-after-sexual-exploitation-of-deaf-students-in-maine/
• When will men stand up to violence? http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/15/opinion/when-will-men-stand-up-to-violence/
• Best responses to sexual assaults focus on the victim: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/16/opinion/best-responses-to-sexual-assaults-focus-on-the-victim/
• Healthy sexuality starts with communication, respect: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/17/opinion/healthy-sexuality-starts-with-communication-respect/
• Listen up: Sexual violence does not discriminate: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/18/opinion/listen-up-sexual-violence-does-not-discriminate/
• Collective trauma: Its impact and how we heal: http://arguably.bangordailynews.com/2013/04/19/people/collective-trauma-its-impact-and-how-we-heal/
• Dear service provider: I’m gay: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/20/opinion/dear-service-provider-im-gay/
• The sex offenders you don’t know: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/22/opinion/the-sex-offenders-you-dont-know/
• Through a nurse’s eyes: Caring for sexual assault victims: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/23/opinion/contributors/through-a-nurses-eyes-caring-for-sexual-assault-victims/
• Understanding the needs of male sexual assault victims: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/24/opinion/contributors/understanding-the-needs-of-male-sexual-assault-victims/
• Do you catcall women as they walk down the street? http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/25/opinion/do-you-catcall-women-as-they-walk-down-the-street/
• Talking to Maine children about child abuse: http://arguably.bangordailynews.com/2013/04/26/people/talking-to-maine-children-about-child-abuse/
• Let’s talk about sex: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/29/opinion/contributors/lets-talk-about-sex/
• The lives of sex trafficking victims in Maine: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/30/opinion/the-lives-of-sex-trafficking-victims-in-maine/

As Shana said in her piece, April and August/September are all big months for conversations around sexual assault education and prevention, as we concentrate our performances typically during college orientation. However, this leaves nine months out of the year where dialogue isn’t concentrated. There is no on- or off-season for sexual assault, and there are things we can do year-round to keep the conversation going. Keep telling your stories, and listening when people share their. Watch out for friends at parties or bars. Ask for and get consent, talk about what consent means, and talk about it with your friends and partners. Don’t let the conversation end when this month ends.

This could be you! Come show us whatchoo got!

[CASTING CALL - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 22, 2013]

Production Title: Speak About It

Production Type: Traveling educational theater

Program Length: One hour, plus an optional facilitation with student leaders

Program Season: August – September with additional performances possible throughout the fall and winter

Posted on: Monday, April 22, 2013

Program Location: Rehearsals and production based in Portland, ME. Included travel throughout New England.

Company website: www.speakaboutitonline.com

Director: David Surkin

Producer:  Shana Natelson

Casting Director: David Surkin

Audition Location: Think Tank, 533 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101

Email: SpeakAboutItOnline [at] gmail [dot] com

Compensation: $275 per week, plus possible food and housing stipend (if non-Portland resident). Additional performances outside of the tour schedule will be compensated on a by-show basis.

KEY DATES

Auditions: Saturday, May 11^th from 12pm – 7pm.

Rehearsals: Rehearsals will begin Monday, August 12^th and include sexual assault advocacy training mandatory for all actors.

Travel and performance (subject to change): Performances to begin Saturday, August 24^th and run though Monday, September 2^nd. An additional performance is scheduled for Monday, September 16^th

Synopsis:

Speak About It is an educational performance about consent, boundaries and healthy relationships specifically for a high school and college audience. The 50-60 performance is a combination of humorous yet provocative skits, interactive dialogue, and powerful monologues. Speak About It is the wisdom of an array of mistakes, misfortunes, successes, and perspectives; a compilation of true stories that captures what health sex can and should look like, and how to spark dialogues about it. The program also specifically addresses a number of issues including consent, sexual assault, and bystander intervention. In combination with a post-performance facilitation, we hope to leave students feeling educated, entertained and empowered to change their campus culture.

Character BIOS:

Up to 4 Males and up to 5 Females ages 22-30 who will play characters largely based on themselves. Must be comfortable talking about sex in front of large audiences, and facilitate conversations afterward. Interest in educational theater preferred though not required.

The whole crew, including Dave!

Thank you to all who came to the show on Thursday, whether it was to support Speak About It, support a loved one, support a survivor, or just to see the what all the commotion has been about, we appreciate it.

To continue the conversation about sexual assault awareness and prevention, we hope to see you at Portland’s 31st Annual Take Back the Night rally on Friday, April 27th beginning at 6pm in Monument Square.

Back in September when we performed at Colby College during their Orientation, we got to meet a handful of people on their campus who are actively changing how sexual assault and sexual assault prevention are talked about. One of those people is Jonathan Kalin, the junior captain of the basketball team, a member of Mules Against Violence and founder of Party With Consent. According to their website, Party With Consent,

is a movement that brings excitement to the social culture of campuses and communities through focusing on what you can do and what you can look forward to. By developing comfort and safety in party atmospheres Party With Consent ensures optimal levels of fun and safety for everyone involved. We envision Party With Consent as as an entry-point and a conversation starter – not as the ultimate solution to the very complicated problem of sexual assault. While our mission emphasizes respect and responsibility, our goals are not to decrease partying, but increase the amounts of consensual partying. PWC works to tackle the ambiguity and confusion surrounding the term “consent” through creative, unique, and unorthodox avenues.

This spring saw the first Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Party With Consent Party (a pretty incredible feat, as usually these schools are trash-talking athletic rivals) at Bates that brought together hundreds of students with live music and conversations about what consent actually looks like (or should look like) in a party atmosphere. Still in its early stages, Party With Consent has high hopes to be on every campus, in every conversation about consent, and hopes to inspire students to engage in unconventional methods of sexual assault prevention – namely, talking about it at parties. Jonathan is spearheading this mission, even recording TEDx talks about his work and his goals.

Our cast all have these sweet tanks, wouldn’t it be cool if you did, too?

Speak About It can only be on each campus for a short amount of time – we’re there for the performance and facilitations, maybe a meal or two – so it’s up to the students and administrators to keep the conversation going after we’ve left. We hope to start the dialogue through our performance, but the next step needs to happen amongst the students. It’s our job to educate and empower, it’s your job to keep the conversation going and inspire change. Jonathan is doing that at Colby College and beyond, and we’re so excited to watch this project grow.

More information about Jonathan and Party With Consent can be found on their website or Facebook page.

We don’t party, but if we did, it would be with consent.

Speak About It will be performing a revised version of their nationally-touring live show that focuses on consent, dating, and being an active bystander. Look for a night of programming that promises to be entertaining, educational, and empowering. Staff members from Planned Parenthood and SARSSM will be in attendance, and audience members are invited to join an informal discussion with the cast following the show. Though Speak About It typically focuses its efforts on college and high school campuses, we are excited to bring the conversation to the larger Portland community as part of a city-wide sexual assault awareness and prevention effort during April.

The show will be April 11th at 7:30 PM, in the third floor gallery space of Planned Parenthood at 443 Congress St. in Portland. The night is free, though a donation is suggested to benefit Speak About It.

We hope that you will be able to join us!

Questions? Comments? Want to get involved? Zip us an email at SpeakAboutItOnline [at] gmail [dot] com

Let’s talk about sex, baby.

As a cast member of Speak About It in 2010 and 2011 and a former NCAA hockey player at Bowdoin College, I’m someone who has belonged to a range of different cultures regarding talking about sex. I don’t want to react here to any of the specifics about Steubenville; I’m neither a lawyer nor versed in the details of the case. However, I spent my childhood immersed in the hockey locker room environment – and I believe there is much we can do as athletes, parents, and coaches, to create a cultural atmosphere in men’s sports that is less caustic towards women (I’m speaking very specifically to male athletic culture and violence against women; though over 90% of assaults are male perpetrators and women survivors, sexual assault can happen to anyone).

Men’s locker rooms are notorious for their “what is said in a locker room, stays in the locker room” mantra, and for decent reasons. Team loyalty is paramount to success, and one aspect of that is the unity one experiences by being a part of something that only a few have earned. That being said, locker rooms can also be bastions of vile, homophobic, and sexist attitudes. It’s true that in many of the locker rooms that I was a part of, there was always free exchange of sexual escapades. In college I spent three years in a locker room with 3 working shower heads for 36 athletes. The nudity and proximity to one another promote grotesque displays of “heterosexuality” – for reasons that are beyond the scope of this narrative. A byproduct of the environment is a demonstration of “straightness”. This is where I believe most of an athletic “rape culture” comes from. It’s a sad fact in a locker room the only thing scarier than being perceived as a virgin was of being perceived as gay. Athletes exchange stories as proof of concept of their sexuality.

The fact of the matter is this is the way it has been, and the way it is now, but it doesn’t have to be the way it is in the future. Children are not born into these behaviors, they are acquired. And children need role models, coaches, parents, and educators who explain how to behave and speak about women from an early age. As a 12-year-old I can remember being lectured by Matt Darcy at our hockey camp. He was a local star, and went on to play professionally, and he was brought up around an ethos that hockey players were supposed to be, above all things, gentlemanly to women. At the time, I can remember thinking to myself that I really didn’t even like girls that much (I was a late bloomer… puberty was still 2 years away…). But he was stern about his expectations, and every one of us ate it up. Still to this day when I hold a door open for girlfriend or lady friend, I think of him.

What if David Beckham modeled for sexual assault prevention instead of underpants?

That we have these tragic events like what happened in Steubenville are completely preventable. There are many pieces to this puzzle, and again, I’m not claiming to be an expert on any of them, but a little effort from role models and coaches can do a lot in shaping male athletic culture. The sad fact is that hockey does not have a culture of gentlemanly respect, but if there were more Matt Darcy’s in the world and in the locker rooms, this might not be the case. We need to teach our sons, our players, and our students, to be gentleman. We need to reverse the rape culture in sports.

I’ll leave with this thought: Michael Jordan wore a shoe that is still the basis for the design of sneakers, and the replicas are still worn by millions of people to this day. Think about the impact that we could see from an athletic icon like Michael Jordan that maybe didn’t come in the form of footwear, but instead was a way to think, act, behave, and speak about women. It might not be as profitable, but it would be a thousand times more transformative.

Think about it: Air Consents. We’d wear those.

Nick Smith is a medical student at Boston University School of Medicine and a former cast member of Speak About It from 2010-2011. He was a varsity hockey player at Bowdoin College from 2005-2009 and was the president of the college’s all-male sexual assault prevention group BMASV (Bowdoin Men Against Sexual Violence). He can be contacted at nikohaus.smith [at] gmail [dot] com

Hamilton College, fall 2012

Our fourth season is shaping up to be our busiest year yet. We began the year with a January orientation presentation at Cornell, and we have already booked many shows for the fall (including four at Harvard University alone!). We continue to reach out to new schools, and hope to not only expand our network into new colleges, but also to connect with high schools who would be interested in exit programming for seniors. To accommodate the increasing demand for our show, we are in the process of hiring a second cast. In exciting news from outside of the theater, we are currently applying for non-profit status with the IRS, which will give us much more flexibility in seeking grants and other funding to allow us to bring our message to more schools.

Brown University, winter 2012

Speak About It has also been expanding its activities beyond school settings. We worked with the global organization VDAY to organize a fundraiser to support their One Billion Rising initiative in Portland, Maine, and we are currently scheduled to be a part of the national Girls Leadership Institute summer program in July. Though we continue to focus our efforts on getting our performance into schools, using our expertise to support local organizations and events is extremely important to us and we plan on growing our presence as an active participant in the local, regional and national sexual assault prevention community.

We’re looking forward to new adventures in 2013, but for now, thanks for helping us speak about it.

xo,

Shana

Shana and Hannah test the photo booth. #lovelikewhoame

We are so thankful for all of the community support we received for this event, including local businesses who graciously donated goods and food. Specifically, we want to thank The Portland Flea-for-All, The Portland Designer, Portland Trading Company, Bard Coffee, Tandem Coffee Roasters, Delicious Femme Fortunes, Nancy Diamond Designs, Gentle Hex Collective, Otto Pizza Portland, Old Port Wine & Cigar Merchants, KittyWitch Perfumery, and our community resources The Frannie Peabody Center and SARSSM. We really can’t thank people enough for coming out to the event on the 14th, our donors and supporters, people who have been champions of Speak About It since the beginning and people who hear about us every day.

Musicians take a polaroid! #lovelikewhoame

We also had a great time with our photo booth! We had mustaches, sunglasses, glasses, Polaroid cutouts, lips, hearts and lots and lots of photos! Be sure to look for the hashtag online #lovelikewhoaME on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you took photos at the event, we’d love it if you shared them on the Facebook event page and make sure to add the hashtag! You can check out the albums that we took on the LOVE LIKE WHOA,  Speak About It or Gentle Hex facebook pages.

Until the next event!