The proclamation of “We Are” turned into a question about who “we” are exactly Thursday evening.
“We Are? ‘A Student Perspective on the Sandusky Scandal' ” was performed at 4:30 p.m. in Pavilion Theatre , located on the corner of Shortlidge Road and Curtin Road.
School of Theatre professor Charles Dumas wrote and directed the play, which his Theatre 208 class then performed Thursday evening.
“We Are?” featured various well-known names in the Penn State community, like the late former head coach Joe Paterno, former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State President Graham Spanier and former assistant football coach Mike McQueary.
The play also presented an assortment of other perspectives, varying from students, individuals abused by Sandusky and a reporter.
“We Are?” was a production containing “students speaking out in their own voice, expressing things we all feel and giving verification to what trustee Lubrano has been saying,” community member and Penn State graduate Pat Vernon said.
Xiaolu Ye played a Chinese doctor and a student in the production and said various student perspectives represented in the play were those of the Theatre 208 class members and actors.
“[As students,] we didn’t know about the scandal. If we knew, we would have told,” she said. “So many students get punished by the media.”
The keyword of the play was “unfair,” Ye (junior-economics) said.
“We Are?” began at a football game last year, with students lined up singing “Sweet Caroline” and continued on to present the riots, vigil, death of Paterno and other now infamous events.
Pavilion Theatre turned serious and silent as countless perspectives were shown.
Viewpoints presented diverged from, “I feel simultaneously ashamed and proud [of the Penn State community]” and “the media didn’t try to cover it up.”
Most notably was a scene in which a number of men identified as “victims,” wearing masks, were throwing a football, while a masked Sandusky one-by-one takes the others from the room. This was occurring while the individuals abused by Sandusky’s testimonies were read.
One student in the play, spoke about how they “had to bear the burden of some of the most heinous acts in human history,” while another student spoke about how “absolutely no one” can strip Penn State of “who we are.”
“It was interesting to see the student perspective,” audience member Allison Mazzola (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said after the show.
Ashley Louge (freshman-engineering) said that as a new member to the community, the student perspective is something she had never seen before.
