On Wednesday, April 9, TransAction and Transforming Theatre Ensemble, or TTE, in the Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, hosted an event that featured the reading of “A Stormy Sea,” a play by student Lyra Opalikhin about a transgender student’s journey at Michigan State University.
Lyra Opalikhin, a third-year James Madison College student at Michigan State University, is passionate about activism and community involvement at MSU, particularly within the LGBTQIA2S+ community. One-way Opalikhin stays involved is through TransAction, a registered student organization for transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, gender-fluid, gender nonconforming and questioning MSU undergraduate students that was founded in 2010. Opalikhin also serves on TransAction’s executive board.
Lyra Opalikhin
Opalikhin has helped with many successful events for TransAction, including “Breakfast and Binders,” which provides breakfast to attendees as well as free informational and gender-affirming resources, and the “Transgender Day of Visibility Movie Night,” which brought in 60 attendees to view and discuss the 2024 horror/fantasy film, “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Opalikhin says students can always reach out to the TransAction office via Instagram or email. While the office’s location is kept private, students can access gender-affirming resources, free clothing through the Transform Closet, and a community that offers weekly meetings and activities. The organization also advocates for gender-inclusive housing initiatives. To access these resources students can reach out to TransAction.
Transforming Theatre Ensemble: “A Stormy Sea”
A group of event attendees after the event. Photo by Dane Robison
Opalikhin also participates in the community as a member of the Transforming Theatre Ensemble Fellowship, a group that uses theatrical sketches to provide an interactive learning experience that engages faculty, staff, student and community audiences in collaboratives problem-solving. The ensemble tasked her with writing a play. Although she initially struggled to decide on a topic, Opalikhin knew she wanted to create a script that was both personal and applicable to others — and that used poetry to convey her message.
“At the time, I was getting more into poetry and being able to use poetry more in my writing,” said Opalikhin.
Event attendees sit around and go through a reading of A Stormy Sea by Lyra. Engaging in important and key discussions. Photo by Dane Robison
Using a variety of theatrical formats followed by interactive discussions led by a skilled facilitator, TTE encourages reflection and analysis of problematic attitudes and behaviors as a step toward transformation.
Working within TTE’s framework and thinking through her interests helped Opalikhin break through and connect the dots. That’s when she decided to use sailing as a metaphor in her play for weathering the journey of being a transgender student in a university setting.
While writing the play, Opalikhin knew she wanted to incorporate experiences from other trans and queer students on campus as well as emphasize the importance of surrounding yourself with community support. Yet she faced challenges balancing personal experiences with broader applicability. She was able to use the play to cope with a lot of the struggles she faced along her journey. The play now is a way for Lyra to amplify her story and other stories of Transgender students, advocating for change and recognition.
“A lot of the experiences in the play are not just my own but were taken from things that friends told me about, like things they experienced, how they felt, and it came together as a combination of those things,” she said.
In reflecting on the experience, Opalikhin reiterated the importance of community support in her activism and the role of storytelling in representing marginalized experiences. She hopes that by bolstering and building more support systems on campus, more students will feel safe and supported in finding community through events and other campus opportunities. Lyra felt satisfied with the event. She loved seeing different Spartans come together and relate to her story. Lyra wants to continue doing similar events with new people to share her story and have people come together and connect with the words of the play.
Students can learn more and connect with TransAction via its website, email or on Instagram using the handle @transaction.
For more information on Transforming Theater Ensemble, email Lynn Lammers or call 517-355-9002.