1-woman play explores harsh reality

On Sunday night, the John Waldron Arts Center showcased a one-woman act based on the play and book by Claudia Shear titled "Blown Sideways Through Life," performed by Julie Dixon, head of acting and an assistant professor in the theater department at Indiana State University. \nThe play and the character of Shear explored the hardships of being a working woman and the ups and downs that come along with each job. The play was also a tribute to working men and women and the struggles of making a living in everyday life. The play illustrated how we as human beings relate to each other and how disrespectful we are to one another.\nThe performance followed Shear as she bounced from job to job. The first act painted a picture of what her jobs were like, describing each one as more humiliating than the one preceding it. Dixon depicted how Shear's day started out from the time she woke up to the day she got fired for standing up for her rights. From there, she went back into time to Shear's childhood and recollected on how Shear lied about her age to get a job, making her feel like an adult.\nAs the play continued, Shear's many demeaning and vigorous jobs are explained in detail by the impeccable acting of Dixon.\n"I believe that going through a humiliating job is not an honor because it is not right to humiliate people, and we should get to know one another, so in the end that humiliation would not be present anymore," Dixon said.\nThe character of Shear is someone to whom everyone can relate. In the play, she expressed her feelings about a day spent working and being humiliated. While she laid down to sleep, she realized a whole day of her life had passed by and without anything different happening.\nDixon took on the character of Shear with passion. You could feel what Shear was trying to express to the audience and to the world. Even though the setting of the play and the props were very simple, it seemed to add to the atmosphere of Shear's hum-drum life. Shear was an everyday person, and she went through the hardships, struggles and toils of having a second-rate job and trying to live in a harsh world. Dixon's performance was so believable and realistic that you sympathized, laughed with and laughed at Shear.\n"I feel connected to Claudia Shear because we were both actresses trying to be recognized and get jobs in plays, but in the meantime, we both chose to work at jobs that were humiliating," Dixon said. "But it was all to fulfill our dreams of acting in a play or movie."\nDixon also said she felt connected with the character because she had to struggle with the same standards in appearance that the character of Shear faced while trying to become an actress. \n"There was a connection because Claudia was heavy like I am, and today you just do not see many actors and actresses who are heavy and on Broadway, in plays, on TV or in the movies," Dixon said.\nJoelene Bergonzi, an instructor at IU, left the play extremely impressed by Julie Dixon's performance and with a better understanding of the human condition.\n"It allowed me to see through another person's eyes and understand what the experience is like to be a working woman and go through so many hardships," Bergonzi said.\nAfter the play was over, there was a panel discussion with Dixon, Indiana State Representative Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, and Robert Aponte, a professor at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. The main topic of discussion was the issue of fair wages for women and minorities of Indiana. Lawson and the Coalition for Wage Equity are trying to a pass a bill to give employees of different gender, race and national origin access to better rates of pay in all types of employment. Their reason for trying to get the bill passed is a wage gap, where women and minorities are segregated to low-paying jobs.\nStudents also came to experience the event and got a taste of what the world outside of college might be for them. Senior Rebecca Cushman, a part of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, left more aware of her position in society. \n"I learned that this is a mainstream issue that deserves much more recognition and has a need for an organized movement," Cushman said. "The major theme to me was we all must treat each other with respect and recognize that some people have more privileges than others." \nCushman felt seeing the play was a valuable experience for her and other IU students could have taken home a great lesson.\n"I just find it unfortunate that there were not many IU students there because I believe it would have been a benefit for them, especially for those women graduating this year," Cushman said.\nThe play opened up many feelings and allowed people to understand the hardships of a menial job. It allowed people in the audience to relate to Shear's struggles and hardships with low-paying jobs.