Arts & Entertainment • The Arts at Gettysburg

The Yellow Dress: Raising Awareness at Gettysburg

October 27th, 2005

By Caroline Kocher

Over fifty students, including women, men, faculty and community members, and children, gathered in the Junction on Wednesday October 26th to view a performance of The Yellow Dress. This powerful one-woman play was written by Deborah Lake-Fortson and originally produced by Sydney Hayes in 1995. The program is a product of Deana’s Fund—an organization focused on raising awareness about abusive relationships and founded in honor of Deana Brisbois, a victim of abuse. The performance was sponsored by the Gettysburg College Women’s Center and performed by Denise Dean.

The Yellow Dress tells the story of Anna, a young woman who is involved in an abusive relationship. The audience sees the progression of Anna’s relationship from its blissful first year, through increasing control and jealousy, and into full-scale abuse. The power of her story comes from its realness—Anna and her boyfriend Ricky could be any student’s friends or classmates. Her story’s dramatic conclusion left the audience silent for several seconds.

Afterwards, Dean opened up the floor for questions and addressed many of the issues surrounding abusive relationships and domestic violence. Questions ranged from “How do you get out of an abusive relationship?” to “How can you help an acquaintance who you suspect might be a victim?” She quizzed students on how to recognize warning signs in their own relationships as well as help a friend in an abusive situation. She cited the following as the main warning signs that a relationship is headed down the path to abuse:

- Controlling behavior
- Abnormal amounts of jealousy
- Attempts to isolate the victim from others
- Insults or any form of emotional abuse
- Dean, who also works with men who have been abusive in the past, drove home the importance of getting to the cultural root of abuse. She emphasized the influence of modern advertising, movies, television, and music have on the spread of abusive behavior.
- In a final part of the program, representatives from Survivors Inc., the assistant district attorney, N.O.V.I.S., YWCA of Gettysburg, and the Gettysburg Police Department introduced their organization and how they act to combat domestic violence in Adams County .
- It is estimated that between one in four high school students have been the victim of physical violence in a relationship, o ne in four college women will be the victim of rape or attempted rape, and an estimated four women are murdered by their partners every day. Though less frequent, men can also be victims of abuse. The Yellow Dress serves as a good starting point, but the dialogue needs to continue. If you or a friend is in an abusive situation, there are many places you can turn both on campus and in the community. Dean stressed the importance of just being there for the victim. “Don’t be afraid to step in,” she explained, “the water may be rough, but sometimes they just want to know that there’s someone else in the boat.”