Since late October, Ebon and Stephanie, my actors, have come to my house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to rehearse during Clem's naps.  Their improvisations have been invaluable to the writing process.  

Together, we have created two protagonists--Ashley and Chris--and an in-progress storyline.  Chris moves schools due to intense bullying but, unfortunately, the bullying continues.  Ashley, a girl at Chris' new school, wants nothing more than to be in "The Clique."  Getting "in," according to Ashley, means putting up with the taunts and jabs of "The Clique."  When Ashley's crush, Derek, invites her to "The Clique's" next party, Ashley jumps at the chance.  There's just one caveat....she has to bring Chris.  Why?  She's not sure, but she suspects the worst.  Ashley must choose between getting into "The Clique" and her friendship with Chris.  This storyline is interspersed by interactive exercises to help students understand how it feels to be the target and why people bully as well as giving them the opportunity to rehearse ways to combat bullying.

In addition to playing our protagonists, Stephanie and Ebon supply the voices for our antagonists, Tiffanie and Derek.  Last rehearsal, Spencer recorded them as our "bullies."  He will take Ebon and Stephanie's recordings and play with the pitch to make their voices different enough.

We have one more week to rehearse, and then it is time to present the first version of our play!

In August, I received a Target Foundation grant through the Pulaski Tech Foundation in collaboration with Safe Places.  With the grant, I will create an interactive play about bullying for students in Holly Bell's speech and drama classes at Mann Middle School.  This project began in fall 2009 when my Pulaski Tech Theatre Experience students created a series of scenes based on five dramaturgical visits to one of Ms. Bell's classes.  Through developing the scenes, we tried to understand what kind of bullying the students face at their school.  We learned that, in addition to the more-expected modes, cyber-bullying is a huge problem.  Our partners at Safe Places also explained the best way to combat bullying at the middle school level is to create a positive peer group.  In addition to crafting a piece with this information, I know that I want no more than two actors for financial sustainability and touring ease.  It will be interesting to see how this works out....stay tuned.