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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Group of performers takes on show charged with feminine energy

Keilah Johnson performs the "To Do List After Break-Up" from the poetry book "Milk and Honey" by Rupi Kaur. The performance will take place March third and fourth in the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center.

Hurting. Loving. Breaking. Healing.

Rupi Kaur’s book of poetry, “Milk and Honey” takes readers through a journey of womanhood — growing up, falling in love, breaking up, and eventually healing and finding peace within yourself and through the women around you.

After its release in 2014, “Milk and Honey” has sold more than half a million copies. It became a sensation among women who found universality in the feminine poems.

One woman was IU senior Melanie McNulty, who is directing an all-female performance on campus based on the book’s poetry. The performance opens 7:30 p.m. Friday, with another performance at 11 p.m. that night in the studio theater in the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center on Jordan Avenue.

McNulty said she planned to direct an independent project during her senior year and wanted to do something written by a woman. When she read “Milk and Honey” for the first time this past fall, something clicked.

“I’ve never really had a piece of writing affect me in such a way,” McNulty said. “I had a visceral response to her poetry. I think it’s because it provoked so many memories and so many things I had felt before, but didn’t recognize other people had felt them.”

“Milk and Honey” is composed of small, simple poems of only a few lines and longer, paragraph-long pieces. McNulty wasn’t sure exactly how to transform it into a performance, but she applied for theater space and a grant anyway. After she received both, she knew she had to do it.

She cast seven women for her ensemble and recruited six others for the crew, including sound, lighting and stage managers.

After six weeks of preparation, memorizing and rehearsing, they are set to open Friday.

Holly Wampler, an IU senior and a member of the ensemble, is making her theater debut with this performance. Wampler has been a dancer her entire life, but took an opportunity with this production to try something new. The reason, she said, was because of how influential the book was to her.

“My main reaction was just being in awe of how truthful the words are,” she said. “What she said embodied feelings I had not found the words for in the past. It was a revelation almost — I can turn my broken heart into art.”

Wampler selected a particular poem as a solo piece. The poem focused on the plight of young girls who are told not to be bossy or have opinions.

During the performance, Wampler recites, “You tell me to quiet down cause / my opinions make me less beautiful / but I was not made with a fire in my belly / so I could be put out

Wampler chose this piece because she describes herself as opinionated. When she was growing up, she said she was shamed for asking for what she wanted and telling others exactly how she felt.

The movement she does while reciting the poetry on stage is powerful because it elicits a strong emotional response from Wampler that powers her through, she said.

Some pieces in the performance are abstract interpretations of Kaur’s poems. Others are more literal. But through each one, the main goal is to tell the lost stories of women.

“I think there are a lot of voices that have been suppressed for a really long time,” McNulty said. “That’s something that really angered me, knowing that. And as I’ve grown up to be a young woman myself, I’ve become more and more frustrated with the lack of female voice and the constant suppression of the female voice. Every time I think about it, or every time I read about it, or hear about it, I just get so angry. I can feel my blood boiling, I can feel my heart pick up speed.”

This performance of “Milk and Honey” is a way for not only the author’s voice to be heard, but also the voices of each of the dozen women involved. Every member helped choose the poems they wanted to bring to life and helped interpret and plan the movements to communicate them to the audience.

“I hope to communicate that there is a human experience, there is a feminine experience, and that should unite people,” Wampler said. “I hope that men reflect on what society has taught them and how they can be more of an ally for progress and change in our society. There’s a lot of misunderstanding between men and women, and I hope this piece leads you to reflect on your own life.”

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