Eaten Alive with Eva van Dok
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Eaten Alive with Eva van Dok

New York City, New York, United States

New York City, New York, United States
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"Actress serves up 'Eaten Alive'"

By Lucy Baugh, Valencia Voice

Broadway actress Eva Van Dok brought
her performance of the critically acclaimed
play “Eaten Alive” to Valencia’s West campus
Tuesday, in an event arranged and hosted by
the Valencia peer educators.
“Eaten Alive” is a 55 minute, one-woman
show that directly deals with eating disorders
and weight obsession. Van Dok portrays five
different women, all at different stages in their
lives, and all struggling with serious eating issues.
West campus coordinator for the peer educators,
Meagan Dickson, introduced Van Dok’s
performance and said that she felt it was “very
important for students to be aware of issues
like these, particularly at Valencia, where there
is no health center.”
The play begins with a stressed out working
mother, who looks in the mirror and feels
disgusted by her reflection. She then vows to
dedicate even more time to her already strict
regimen of exercise and diet, and attempts to
reschedule her already hectic life. After this,
the character binges on abnormal amounts of
food and tells herself it would be the last time.
Van Dok then moves on to depict the life
of a young college student struggling with
bulimia. The student talks on the phone to a
friend, saying, “gaining weight is worse than
dying.” According to the character, eating and
throwing up is the only way to control weight
gain, and in turn her own stress.
The performance moves on to deal with
other kinds of disordered eating, including an
obese woman struggling to lose weight for her
health, and an anorexic girl who’s ideal size is
“a negative three.” The hard hitting performance
ultimately returns to the stressed out
career woman, who comes to realize that
weight obsession has taken over her life. The
play ends with the character saying, “Get
some help.”
After the show, the audience had the opportunity
to take part in an informal question
and answer session with Van Dok, in
which she opened up about her own experiences
with anorexia and bulimia. After the
death of her father when she was 12, Van
Dok saw eating as a way of getting control
back into her life. She said, “eating disorders
have nothing to do with food. It’s all
about control.”
Also on hand to answer questions was
Valencia counsellor Gloria Hines, who told
the audience that seeking professional help
was the first and most positive step to take
in order to recover from an eating disorder.
Valencia student Melissa Davis felt particularly
moved by the performance, saying,
“It was relevant to my own personal experience.
I’m glad I came today.” The play
was also relevant to student Peter Mirck,
who said, “It was inspiring because I know
somebody that has been through it.”
Van Dok plans to continue her performances
and hopes to reach out to many
more college students in the USA, and
across the world. “Realization that there is
a problem needs to come before help can
be sought. Raising awareness is something
that I am very passionate about.”
For more information about eating disorders
and how to get help, visit www.na - Valencia Voice, Valencia Community College


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Bio

Eva Van Dok is currently a Broadway actress, and a recovered anorexic/bulemic. Eaten Alive is a one-woman theater piece that presents the lives of five women in different stages of life, all of whom have body image issues and are dealing with eating disorders. The piece shows the behaviors, thought processes and lifestyles of the women in a way that illuminates the emotional dynamic of each character as they live and function with their disorder. Eva shows attendees how easy it is to fool oneself with excuses and false promises into thinking that ‘it’s not a problem’ or that ‘I will stop once I lose these last five pounds’ -- but these are dangerous thought patterns, both physically and emotionally. She achieves this by creating characters with whom the audience can relate: a roommate, a sibling, a friend or even themselves. This piece has truly saved lives.