Theatre | WGSS

THEATRE FUYUAN (FREYA) ZHENG

AINE PIERRE Online Managing Editor

Through COVID-19, through feelings of inferiority, through four long years of college, the show must go on.

That seems to be what drives Fuyuan, or Freya Zheng, a Theatre major from Tianjin, China. In her four years at Wake Forest, she has directed and stage-managed productions; won research awards and founded a club and excelled academically.

Zheng was first drawn to theatre through a First Year Seminar on communication in the fine arts.

“We got to read poems and look at sculptures, pictures, paintings and other artwork,” Zheng said of the class. “We also went to the Theatre Department production. I think it was ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ that they did that semester.”

She continued: “That was my first real involvement with the Theatre and Dance Department. And I just found it interesting. I have always been a theatre lover, but I didn’t really expect myself to do theatre as a job or as a major. But that semester, I actually kind of felt like ‘oh, it’s really fun to do theatre.’ I think also that semester that there was a theater or musical wave in China, and everyone kind of like get interested in theater and those kind of things.”

Now officially interested in being a theatre major, Zheng took THE 150 — an intro class — for her art divisional. It ended up being one of her favorite classes from her time at Wake Forest.

“It’s kind of a huge workload, but it’s really interesting, and it actually gives you a great insight of what theatre looks like,” Zheng said.

Zheng said because her two majors, theatre and anthropology, are not popular among Chinese students, she sometimes felt isolated. However, she also said that she has had no problems finding other communities.

“Most of my days were spent in Scales, and everybody was really nice in the lobby during the day,” Zheng said. “Also, you can literally see all the art students, like either from studio arts or theatre just hanging out in that lobby talking with each other.”

Zheng also began to get involved with productions. In the spring of her junior year, she stage-managed “The Gentleman From Verona”, a Shakespeare comedy that the Theatre Department staged outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also stage-managed “The Normal Heart” last fall.

“It was just a lot for everybody involved,” Zheng said of “The Normal Heart”. “Not only for the actors and directors, but also for the people working backstage. I remember like when I was in the rehearsals because I was the stage manager, I had to be there every night, and there were so many nights that I ended up having tears in my eyes.”

Zheng’s involvement in theatre is not limited to the department, however. She also founded the BiMoo Theatre Group, which produces Mandarin plays, and directed the group’s most recent production, ”Same Caged”. Zheng praised BiMoo’s adviser and theatre professor Dr. Brook Davis for her help.

“She helped me so much along the way in just giving me suggestions and networks and helping me to put everything together,” Zheng said.

Davis, who also taught Zheng in one of her classes, praised Zheng’s efforts to create a space for Chinese theatre on campus.

“She has worked tirelessly to foster a creative space for students who are interested in delving into Chinese theatre,” Davis said. “She directed a lovely production of ‘Kinderszenen’ in the fall — both English and non-English speakers were excited by her work. Freya will leave big shoes to fill when she graduates in May, and we will miss her in our department.”

Zheng will begin classes at Columbia this fall to obtain a Master’s of Fine Arts in Stage Management degree.

Katie Fox/Old Gold & Black

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies OLIVIA THONSON

MARYAM KHANUM Opinion Editor

Hailing from Los Angeles, CA, Olivia Thonson’s interest in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies began at a young age, when her grandmother told her stories of how difficult it was to navigate high school as a woman in the 1950s. One story in particular stood out to Thonson, how her grandmother wanted to take the auto-shop class her high school offered but was not allowed to do so due to the fact that no other women had signed up for the class.

“She found three other girls and they all forced the instructor of the class to let them enroll,” Thonson said. “She ended up being the only person in that whole class able to take apart a car engine and put it back together.”

Since then, Thonson has become a prolific activist. In her sophomore year of high school, she started a club called “This Means W.A.R (Women Against Assault and Rape)” along with a few of her friends. They instituted both self-defense and sexual education classes on campus for free, and were invited to the “Girls Build L.A.” conference in which high school students from all over Los Angeles County were asked to present their ideas on how to improve their respective high school campuses. Thonson believes that the opportunity to work with all of those women in that setting served as a building block for her to become involved with activism later on in her academic career.

In her freshman year at Wake Forest, Thonson started the Intersectional Feminist Collective with the help of Dr. Jieun Lee, who sponsored events for the organization.

“Olivia’s thoughts and actions have always reflected a sense of altruism which will undoubtedly lead her to make a positive difference in society,” Lee said. “She has tirelessly promoted critical engagements on campus through multiple successful events related to gender and sexuality topics she organized. It was my great joy to have met Olivia, and I will take immense pleasure in following her future accomplishments on her life path as an intersectional feminist leader after graduation.”

Thonson harbors a deep appreciation for Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and believes it has significantly shaped her experiences throughout her academic journey. As a double major in WGSS and Politics & International Affairs and a minor in Bioethics, Thonson is able to take her knowledge from WGSS and apply it to her other classes, noticing how that foundational knowledge from her major classes has enabled her to have a more complex understanding of international issues.

“As a woman, feminism is so applicable to every part of my life and every decision I make,” Thonson said. “No matter what, there will always be some theory or some form of feminism that I can apply.”

Thonson has been working on her honors thesis, advised by Dr. Kristina Gupta, and works at the Office of Wellbeing as the Health Promotions Assistant. Her responsibilities include managing the university’s sexual health portfolio, training sexual health ambassadors, contributing to organizing sex week and conducting educational workshops.

“Olivia is an outstanding student and completed a number of excellent projects in the courses she took with me,” Gupta said. “She recently finished a truly impressive joint WGSS honors project with another WGSS major, Leilani Fletcher. For the project, they created a series of zines [selfpublished magazines] exploring student activism at Wake Forest from an anti-racist feminist perspective. We have been truly lucky to have her as a WGSS major!”

Thonson aims to further these efforts postgraduation, intending to achieve a dual Master’s in Public Health and Public Policy. Before she engages in this pursuit, however, Thonson plans to travel to Europe and Southeast Asia for six months — and also work briefly as a snowboarding instructor. Her ultimate goal is specifically to work around global health, maternal and child health and men’s reproductive health in the context of comprehensive sexual education.

“I want to feel like what I’m doing is actually making an impact. I would love to work with grassroots community organizations on a global scale,” Thonson said.