GREENSBORO, N.C. – Officials with Greensboro College wanted students to know that with sexual misconduct, “It Stops Here.”

Unfortunately, it’s only begun.

“It Stops Here.” is the title of a student written and produced play adopted by the college as a means of educating students on sexual assault, and made mandatory this year for incoming freshmen as part of a new policy on sexual misconduct, Broadway World reports.

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But during the premiere last Wednesday morning, “There was a certain segment of the audience that was joking and making crude remarks,” senior theater major Luke Powell told “theater advocate” blogger Howard Sherman. “One of the first things I noticed during one of the monologues. One of the girls was doing hers and I could hear that this portion of the audience was catcalling her during this story of a rape victim.”

“Many of the boys started calling out ‘She wanted it, it’s not rape,’ and making masturbation noises,” stage manager Claire Sellers told Fox 8.

Sellers, a junior, said the cast felt violated by the incident, and some were actually sick over it.

“They became physically ill and vomited after the show because they were so vulgar,” Seller said. “The dean of students was standing idly by. I saw him near the biggest group of offenders there.”

Greensboro College spokesman Lex Alexander said “I wasn’t there,” so he was unsure if the dean of students witnessed the heckling, but did report some faculty was present during the play.

“I think this incident illustrates in a very real way the point that this play is trying to make,” he said.

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School officials issued an announcement about the heckling, launched a Title IX investigation, and is now working to track down the students who made offending remarks to “face disciplinary consequences.”

“ … Wednesday’s incident makes clear that we as an academic and social community still have much to learn. That includes all of us, now just a few students,” according to an announcement from college president Lawrence D. Czarda posted to the college’s website.

“In addition to the Title IX investigation, the college will be reviewing and discussing the entirety of the context of the incident,” the statement continues. “Among many other questions, we will address such issues as what faculty and staff who were present might have done differently. Beyond meeting our legal obligations, the College’s goal is to make this incident a learning opportunity for the entire College community.”

Some of the actors in the play spoke with Sherman for his blog.

“The worst thing that happened,” Powell said, “was when we get to the end of the play, the stages goes dark and four of the girls do the internal thoughts of a victim during a sexual attack. Some of that group got up to leave, not because they were triggered. Some of the group was saying stuff like ‘oh, you want it,’ and one started making a noise with his hands that sounded like masturbation through the five or six minute scene.”

Sophomore Makenzie Degenhardt said she wasn’t particularly surprised by the juvenile antics.

“I expected this to happen,” she told Sherman. “It’s a topic people don’t like to talk about. As soon as someone says rape, people get uncomfortable. People make jokes about things they’re uncomfortable with, but in this case it was inappropriate.”

Dagenhart said people laughed, clapped and encouraged the inappropriate sexual behavior depicted in the play, and spoke louder to drown out the catcalls and harassment.

Dagenhart told Sherman her initial reaction was to dismiss the behavior, “Oh, boys react like this, this is normal,” she said, but later realized the objective of her performance is to illustrate “it shouldn’t be normal.”

“That’s what the point of the show is,” she said. “If it happens again, I will respond differently.”

The play continued with several more performances through this past weekend with no reported harassment during those shows.