Fund Dawn McCall's Directorial Debut: Action by Sam Shepard

Hey there!

My name is Dawn McCall. I'm a senior theatre and world religions double major at Rowan University, and I am raising money for the production of my senior capstone project and directorial debut, Action by Sam Shepard!

I am so excited to get started with this process, since this show has been almost three years in the making for me. After taking a Queer Theory course where my thesis had me apply theories of gender performance (the idea that gender itself is real only to the extent that it is performed) and the breakdown of masculinity to Sam Shepard's plays, mainly focused on Action, I started to see how his work intersected with so many aspects of my own experiences.

To me, Action reads as a dark satire of how we are expected to act as "real" men/women, using aspects of theatre of the absurd and camp in order to subvert, question and disarm harmful gender stereotypes. It exposes just how unnatural, and sometimes dangerous, these performances of gender we've been trained to view as "natural" can be, as well as how systemic issues like injustice in the prison system can help perpetuate these performances. As someone who is both queer and has experienced this injustice firsthand, Action spoke to me from the first time I read it and I knew that I needed to do something with it. Now here we are!

I have gotten together a wonderful cast and crew, but as broke college students, we still need the funds to put everything together! It would mean the world to me if you could donate to our show, for things such as:

Absolutely anything helps, so please donate what you can and share to spread the word and help our show come to life!

So much love,

Dawn