How to Defend Yourself

by Liliana Padilla

Overview

Seven college students gather for a DIY self-defense workshop after a sorority sister is raped. They learn how to "not be a victim," how to use their bodies as weapons, how to fend off attackers. The form of self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, trauma, confusion, anxiety and desire - lots of desire. Challenged to determine what they want and how to ask for it, the students must ultimately face the insidious ways rape culture steals one's body and sense of belonging.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780573710636
Publisher:	Concord Theatricals
Publication date:	05/31/2024
Pages:	116
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.24(d)

About the Author

Liliana Padilla makes stories about belonging, healing, and transformation. How to Defend Yourself premiered at the Humana Festival and Victory Gardens Theatre and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Liliana received an MFA in playwriting from UC San Diego.
 

Editorial Reviews

Padilla outlines the mysterious absences that rule our inner lives, give shape to our fantasies, and serve as the troubled conundrums around which our very identities come into being.”—Ayad Akhtar, from the Foreword

"How To Defend Yourself is a fierce, blazingly honest, deeply original play. It asks what it means to live in a culture saturated with violence, and what it means to heal." —Naomi Iizuka, Playwright

“Liliana is one of the most thoughtful and penetrating new voices I’ve encountered, and How to Defend Yourself took my breath away. It scratches at the edges of race, class, and gender, and does so with wild intelligence and heart. I love it, and can’t wait to read what they write next.”—Rachel Chavkin, Director

From the Publisher