In the Loop
General News : Jan 25, 2018

“Voices from the March” closes UF 2018 Social Justice Summit

By Marissa Secades

The College of the Arts presents the premier of the documentary play Voices from the March in the closing ceremonies of the UF 2018 Social Justice Summit.

Directed by Jeffrey Pufahl, a Creative Campus Scholar in Residence in the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, this play pieces together the experiences of UF students and staff involved in the Women’s March On Washington: Experiential Learning Oral History Project. This project’s fieldwork focused on UF students and staff collecting interviews during last year’s presidential inauguration and the subsequent Women’s March on Washington as a collaboration between the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research (CGSWSR) and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP).

These collaborative efforts continue to shine forth through the ensemble of Voices from the March, which features some of the students who traveled to Washington, D.C., performing alongside other students who assist in bringing their various interviews to life. These students all hail from different corners of the UF community with varying degrees of experience performing in live theatre.

“I have no experience writing or performing in plays, apart from, of course, elementary school experiences,” said Holland Hall, a first year Master’s of Education/Education Specialist student in Mental Health Counseling.

As the Research Coordinator for the Women's March on Washington Experiential Learning Fieldwork Trip, Hall began organizing UF students in the fall of 2016 for the three-day research trip to Washington, D.C.

“We (SPOHOP) were approached about a potential collaboration by Dr. Bonnie Moradi, the director of the UF Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies Research,” Hall said. “When I received word that our experiences were being turned into a theatrical performance piece, I knew I wanted to be involved.”

Hall and the other students began working closely with Pufahl to create a compelling script for a multimedia, performative piece of oral history that would employ excerpts of archived interviews as well as reflections from the interviewers themselves.

“This play offers constructive critiques of the Women's March on Washington while also illuminating the complexities of the political climate in the United States,” Hall said.

This unique, multimedia theatrical experience will take place on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rion Ballroom at the Reitz Student Union. It is free and open to the public.