Michael Lipton looks directly into the camera and delivers his lines with intensity, “I was confused. I thought we were having fun.” Lipton was one of roughly twenty students who participated in auditions held by the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office on Monday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in their search to find actors for their upcoming public service announcements geared toward raising awareness of sexual assault.
The PSAs are part of a larger Sexual Assault Prevention Campaign that the District Attorney’s Office is developing for the Five College Area and Greenfield College. Representatives from the office, Natalia Muñoz and Mary Patierno, served as judges for the auditions. Professor Mary Carey’s Journalism 300 class attended the auditions and two students, Mitchell Scuzzarella and Jeff Okerman, displayed their acting skills as they tried out for parts in two different scenes.
Addressing the issue of sexual assault means that these PSAs have to show these illegal acts occurring; before beginning Muñoz asked auditioners if they were comfortable doing things “like groping a women’s breasts and buttocks.” The District Attorney’s Office wants to make the PSAs receptive to students so their primary goal is authenticity. After running through a couple scenes reading directly from the script, the auditioners were told to make the scene their own and adapt lines to whatever feels natural.
The campaign is hoping to produce three commercials, each focusing on a different sexual assault scenario and educating viewers as to what qualifies as sexual assault as well as examples of preventative steps that can be taken. The PSAs will be accompanied by advertising through other mediums such as coasters at local bars, posters, and buttons.
The results of the auditions will be provided on Wednesday and the actual filming will take place in Northampton on March 9. Actors who are selected will be compensated for their work and extras can participate in the filming as volunteers. The finished products will be displayed at a conference in March or April so people can voice their opinions and offer suggestions.
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