"I wish girls fought more. Like beat the sh_t out of each other for fun. I wish that was like a socially acceptable thing to do. Fight club, you know? If it was me and you, I think I’d win."
In a DIY self-defense class, college students learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire—lots of desire.
"You asked how I like it, that’s how I like it."
"Maybe you can interrogate why you like that."
"Maybe you can interrogate why it scares you."
With sharp humor and brutal honesty, Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself explores what we want, how to ask for it, and the violator and violated inside us all. Tony Award-winning NYTW Usual Suspect Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), Susan Smith Blackburn finalist Liliana Padilla (TWITCH) and Princess Grace Award winner Steph Paul (The Last Match) will co-direct the production.
How to Defend Yourself discusses but does not depict sex and sexual violence.
100 minutes (with no intermission)
February 24th, 2023
April 2nd, 2023
By: Liliana Padilla
Director: Rachel Chavkin, Liliana Padilla, Steph Paul
Producer: New York Theatre Workshop
Cast list: Amaya Braganza, Sebastian Delascasas, Jayson Lee, Ariana Mahallati, Teagan Meredith, Gabriela Ortega, Sarah Marie Rodriguez, Talia Ryder
Design: You-Shin Chen
Costumes: Izumi Inaba
Lighting: Stacey Derosier
Sound: Mikhail Fiksel
Other info: Fight direction by Rocio Mendez, intimacy coordination by Ann James, vocal coaching by Dawn-Elin Fraser
Unfortunately, tickets for this event are no longer available.
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