In “Good Kids,” theatre senior Laine Korn steps onto the Reilly Theatre stage as Chloe — a sexual assault victim.
The role is rewarding, Korn said, but a challenge, especially as a young woman on a college campus when her role is a reality for some.
“It’s hard to come into that space every night,” Korn said. “Having the support of the cast to kind of bring you back down to Earth is really helpful because as an actress you want to put yourself in the shoes of your character, but it can get very dangerous if you forget those shoes aren’t yours.”
As part of the 2015-16 LSU Theatre season, “Good Kids” opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. The play, written by Naomi Iizuka, tackles sexual assault in a social media climate.
“Good Kids” is based on the 2012 Steubenville High School rape case in Ohio, where a 16-year-old girl incapacitated by alcohol was raped by her peers, including two football players.
Set in a high school in the American Midwest, the play centers on Chloe. Undressed and in a strange place, Chloe wakes up, unable to remember anything about the event.
Later, she discovers the football players chronicled themselves assaulting her via social media, leading to the public aftermath of the incident. Similarly to the Steubenville case, the football players also chronicled their assault through social media.
Korn said she often becomes emotionally attached to her characters after playing them, studying them and falling in love with them. This particular character is even more demanding for Korn because Chloe, though fictitious, is based on a real-life victim.
“This is a person who actually went through this,” Korn said. “That’s terrifying and brutal.”
Before auditions started for “Good Kids,” Korn said she decided to get involved. She researched as much about the Steubenville case as she could, reading articles and watching YouTube videos.
Now in the role, Korn said her process for playing Chloe evolved into something intimate and personal.
“I try to get into that mindset of being full of possibility because that makes the fall so much harder and hopefully more truthful to the audience,” Korn said. “Look at this joy, this ball of light, this innocence, and so quickly that flame is muffled,” she said.
After the show, Korn has trouble getting out of Chloe’s mindspace. She said she needs to touch base with someone else in the production to bring her back to reality before going home.
Korn said what makes it even harder to get out of character after the show is that the actors’ baby pictures are used at the end to contrast other pictures of the cast grown up.
Seeing that contrast is an emotional process, Korn said.
Director Rick Holden said “Good Kids” is draining not only for the actors, but for him as well.
“I know we’re not unique on LSU’s campus in this way, but we work with our students closely, particularly when you’ve got actors working every day. I really think I understand them,” Holden said. “You’ve got to fall in love with them and care about them, so imagining that Laine was undergoing this breaks your heart.”
Holden said there are lighter moments in the play. Without those moments, Holden said the audience would be consistently depressed throughout the show.
Because the cast of “Good Kids” is exclusively LSU students, Holden said the play is even more important to the campus.
“We thought it would be great to put a spotlight on this issue and tell the story as best we could,” Holden said.
“Good Kids” closes Nov. 22.

Gallery • 9 Photos

Catherine Seddon

LSU Theatre Department presents Good Kids; a play that explores the current issues of sexual assault and social media which opens November 11, 2015 in Reilly Theatre.