Hanne Larsen, AMD’17, is going to spend her summer creating a new work of theatre, a devised production based on Rachel Hills’ book, The Sex Myth.  Hanne was recently awarded a $3,000 Advanced Research/Creative Endeavor Provosts Award, that will will support her work and cover the costs of creating her workshop production.

Hanne was inspired by a combination of factors this year, beginning with her work in the Theatre Department production of The House of Bernarda Alba last fall.  “Since much of the play dealt with sex and societal expectations of it, my director Antonio Ocampo-Guzman recommended that I attend Rachel Hills’ “Let’s Talk About Sex” workshop on campus,” Hanne recalls.  “The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department hosted it as part of her book tour for her newly published book The Sex Myth.  The workshop sparked a desire in me to further explore the connections between the play and The Sex Myth.

“I found myself engaged, excited, and understood in a discussion that I had previously not been a part of. The main reason for this was that most conversations about sex, sex positivity, and our sexual climate I have observed have been extremely opinionated. I felt vulnerable and didn’t want to share my opinions – because I did not even know what they were yet – in fear that I might be targeted for being wrong. The workshop provided a safe environment for me to explore these ideas. I am so happy that I attended because now I can be an empowered and informed participant in conversations about The Sex Myth.”

Hanne’s extensive coursework in physical and devised theatre have prepared her for this work.  She is currently a member of the cast of Alien vs. Predator, a devised theatre piece inspired by the poetry of Michael Robbins and directed by David R. Gammons.  She has also trained in Viewpoints and Suzuki on campus, and brings a background of dance and contact improvisation.  Hanne is excited to collaborate with her cast and “explore how we can begin a conversation on the topics of sex, sex positivity, and the sexual climate in the engaging format of devised theatre on Northeastern University’s campus. Hookup culture and its implications are extremely relevant to today and my peers. I want to explore past and contemporary parallels about the culture of sex.”

Photography by Grant Terzakis.