Room 103
– A Title IX Drama –

Room 103 is a stage play set on a contemporary college campus. Warning, what follows involves sexual violence, courage, entitlement, narcissism, and the troubling level of privilege we afford student athletes.

Title IX, signed into law over fifty years ago, is well-known for requiring gender equity in college sports. It goes way beyond that, prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex among all students in schools that receive federal funds. Sexual assault is a violent form of discrimination and harassment, and is investigated by the school’s Title IX enforcement office separately from any criminal charges that may be filed.

Many thanks to the survivors of sexual violence whose courage is the inspiration for this work.

The cast description and scene list is below. To skip directly to Act I of the script, please click here.

 

Cast:
Barbara Woods, 42, Title IX Investigator
Paulina Nettles, 25, Investigative Assistant & Victim Advocate
Nancy “Doe,” 20, student, accuser
Wellington “Welly” Harris, 21, All-American linebacker, accused of rape
Gerald “Pop” Hughes, 60, head football coach
Agatha Tulitsky, 20, Nancy’s roommate
Sean Dunham, 22, football player
Jake Samuels (voice only), 21, football player
Alyssa Simon, 30, Manager, Pizza ‘n’ Pints
Billy Blackstone, 24, waiter, Pizza ‘n’ Pints
Ron Fitzhugh, 44, University Police Chief
Jerome Zimmer, 55, Welly’s lawyer
Harold, 52, Nancy’s father
Miguel Lutus, 59, Athletic Director
Lorenzo Slater, 35, Defensive Backs Coach
Wiley & Betts, assistant coaches (non-speaking)
Linc Jackson, Marcus Wilford, Parker Leonard, football players
Wildcat football team and members of the press (non-speaking)

Scene summary – Most scenes take place in 3 rooms in the Title IX Enforcement Office of an unnamed major-college campus:

• Room 101 – office of Barbara Woods
• Room 103 – victim/reporting party interview room
• Room 105 – accused party interview room
• The rooms could be fixed in place on stage or, if space is limited, just one set (using décor changes as scenes change).
• Scenes in outdoor locations noted below* could use the stage apron or front rows of audience.
  
  

Act I

• Scene 1 – Room 101, Monday May 7. Barbara Woods, Paulina Nettles
• Scene 2 – Room 103, same day. Woods, Nancy Doe
• Scene 3 – Room 105, same day. Woods, Coach Hughes, Wellington Harris
• * Scene 4 – outside Nancy Doe’s apartment, same day. Doe alone
• Scene 5 – Room 103, next day, May 8. Woods, Doe, Agatha Tulitsky
• Scene 6 – Room 101, next day, May 9. Woods gets phone call from Hughes
• Scene 7 – Room 105, 2 weeks later, May 23. Woods, Hughes, Sean Dunham
• Scene 8 – Room 101, next day, May 24. Woods gets phone call from Jake Samuels
• * Scene 9 – Pizza ‘n’ Pints (hostess’ desk, then back office), next day, May 25. Woods, Alyssa Simon, Billy Blackstone
• Scene 10 – Room 103, 2 months later, July 27. Woods, Doe, Tulitsky, Nettles

Act II

• * Scene 1 – Outside Room 101, a week later, August 3. Hughes, Harris
• Scene 2 – Room 101, next day, August 4. Woods, Ron Fitzhugh, Nettles
• Scene 3 – Room 101, nearly 3 mo. later, October 29. Woods, Nettles, Hughes, Tulitsky, Harold, Jerome Zimmer
• Scene 4 – Room 101, next day, Oct 30. Woods, Doe, Harris, Tulitsky, Harold, Zimmer, Nettles, Miguel Lutus
• * Scene 5 – Wildcat Stadium, afternoon same day, October 30. Coaches Slater, Wiley, Betts; players Linc Jackson, Marcus Wilford, Parker Leonard; additional players; members of the press (could use audience members for press and nonspeaking players)
• Scene 6 – Room 101, evening, same day, October 30. Woods, Nettles; Joseph Clemons on phone
  

Please click here to go to Act I or here to go to Act II.

For an excellent 50-year historical summary of Title IX, including its challenges and revisions, please click here.