Other schools say "Me Too"?

Duke students have been lining up for Me Too Monologues for years, but soon, audiences at other schools might have the chance to do the same.

Me Too Monologues executive producer Tara Gavcovich, a senior, said now that the production team has expanded the show from one weekend of performances to two, they will have more time to focus on encouraging similar events at other universities.

“It’s made a huge impact here at Duke and I think it has the potential to do that at others schools as well,” Gavcovich said.

The team behind Me Too has already spoken with a graduate student at Harvard who was interested in putting on a similar event there. In case schools do adapt the model of anonymous student-written monologues performed by other students, the production team is in the process of trademarking the name Me Too Monologues. Once the trademark is finalized, the name will have to be accompanied by the phrase “A Duke University Creation.” Gavcovich said the trademark is not intended to collect any royalties, but to ensure credit is given for developing the idea.

“We knew how much bigger [Me Too] was getting and we were excited about that, but we wanted people to know that Duke created it,” she said.

The Me Too team will first look to schools in the area to see if there is interest in putting on Me Too Monologues on their campuses. Gavcovich mentioned that members of the Office for Institutional Equity, one of the program’s sponsors, suggested that they go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to perform some of the monologues, which may lead to interest in a homegrown UNC production.

The expansion to other schools would follow an internal expansion of the production this year. Seeing how audience members had to be turned away last year due to space constraints, the team added two performances this year. Gavcovich estimated that the five performances of this year’s monologues drew a total of 1,800 people.

If the long term plans succeed, this could be a significant first for Duke: for all that the school is known for, exporting participatory community theater is not high on the list. Given how effective the monologues have been at sparking conversation and generating audience turnout, though, they stand a good chance of succeeding on other campuses too. Then the question becomes: would UNC put on a show subtitled “A Duke University Creation,” or does the Tobacco Road rivalry pervade the stage as well as the court?