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PITTSBURG —
From elementary school on up, Pittsburg students heckle, tease and torment each other on a daily basis, and a group of Pittsburg High School theater students are fighting this in the best way they know how.
They’re putting on a play.
“Everyday People,” written by California-based author Debbie Lamedman. will have its world premiere at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium. A question and answer session will follow. On Thursday and Friday there will be two age-appropriate performances, morning and afternoon, for elementary children and middle and high school students.
Director Greg Shaw said that all performances will be offered free. He has also invited schools from the surrounding area to view the play.
“Right at 4,000 students will be attending,” Shaw said. “I tell the kids that it’s an example of how theater can be used for more than just entertainment.”
This will be the third play by Lamedman that the PHS students have performed, and the second that has been developed through a collaboration between the playwright and the students.
“We first did Debbie’s play ‘Phat Girls’ about body image and society’s pressure for boys and girls to look a certain way, but that play had already been published when we did it,” Shaw said. “Last year we did ‘Ignorance Is Bliss: A Global Warning,’ which was very much a collaboration between us and Debbie and went through several drafts.”
“Everyday People” only took two drafts.
“Debbie knew who we were and came in with a strong first script,” Shaw said. “But the kids felt that two elements were missing. One was girl-on-girl bullying at the elementary level, which is really prevalent. They also thought that bullying on the basis of sexual orientation was not strongly represented in the first draft, and they strongly felt that it should be.”
In the play, Josh Wilde portrays Kevin, a shy student who is gay.
“I feel like the situations we’re putting on stage are things we see quite often,” Wilde said. “Our ability to do this play is highlighted by our seeing so much gay-bashing. It’s really prevalent in our school. We see a lot of what you see on stage.”
“There have been a few instances where we’ve kept entire conversations pulled from Facebook or chat rooms that are really hateful,” said Alex McNay. “Four or five specific instances we brought to class were conversations between PHS kids that just popped up on the Internet. We didn’t go looking for them.”
From elementary school on up, Pittsburg students heckle, tease and torment each other on a daily basis, and a group of Pittsburg High School theater students are fighting this in the best way they know how.
They’re putting on a play.
“Everyday People,” written by California-based author Debbie Lamedman. will have its world premiere at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium. A question and answer session will follow. On Thursday and Friday there will be two age-appropriate performances, morning and afternoon, for elementary children and middle and high school students.
Director Greg Shaw said that all performances will be offered free. He has also invited schools from the surrounding area to view the play.
“Right at 4,000 students will be attending,” Shaw said. “I tell the kids that it’s an example of how theater can be used for more than just entertainment.”
This will be the third play by Lamedman that the PHS students have performed, and the second that has been developed through a collaboration between the playwright and the students.
“We first did Debbie’s play ‘Phat Girls’ about body image and society’s pressure for boys and girls to look a certain way, but that play had already been published when we did it,” Shaw said. “Last year we did ‘Ignorance Is Bliss: A Global Warning,’ which was very much a collaboration between us and Debbie and went through several drafts.”
“Everyday People” only took two drafts.
“Debbie knew who we were and came in with a strong first script,” Shaw said. “But the kids felt that two elements were missing. One was girl-on-girl bullying at the elementary level, which is really prevalent. They also thought that bullying on the basis of sexual orientation was not strongly represented in the first draft, and they strongly felt that it should be.”
In the play, Josh Wilde portrays Kevin, a shy student who is gay.
“I feel like the situations we’re putting on stage are things we see quite often,” Wilde said. “Our ability to do this play is highlighted by our seeing so much gay-bashing. It’s really prevalent in our school. We see a lot of what you see on stage.”
“There have been a few instances where we’ve kept entire conversations pulled from Facebook or chat rooms that are really hateful,” said Alex McNay. “Four or five specific instances we brought to class were conversations between PHS kids that just popped up on the Internet. We didn’t go looking for them.”
He portrays Teen Bobby who, with Brette Minton as Teen Jenny, look back on the actions of their younger selves during the play. Little Bobby and Middle School Bobby, played by David Elam, is one of those who torments Kevin. Brittany Wilde, as Little Jenny/Middle School Jenny, is first a victim of bullying by other girls and Little Bobby in grade school, then becomes a mean girl herself in middle school.
Gabrielle Murnan, as narrator, notes that school can be a horrible experience for many youngsters.
“That’s just the way it’s always been and will probably always be that way unless we learn to accept each other for who we are,” she says in the play.
One of the strongest incidents depicted, based on a real-life situation that occurred elsewhere, involves a new girl at school who is bullied so constantly that she eventually commits suicide.
Lydia McKinney plays the tormented teen.
“My freshman year I was the new girl at school and none of the other girls liked me,” she said. “I know who this girl in the play is, because she’s me.”
Alex Henry plays one of the tough students, and it’s difficult for him.
“In junior high I was a victim of bullying, so it gets really hard to play a bully,” Henry said. “I don’t even like portraying a character like that.”
“In middle school I was picked on a lot, and I was pushed down stairs at Pittsburg Community Middle School,” said Will Grassi. “In high school it’s different.”
Things changed for Contril Stewart as well.
“I was picked on a lot in middle school,” he said. “I was the main target in gym, but it continued after class. I got bigger and was tied of people hassling me every day so I fought back. When we graduated from eighth grade it changed. People who had picked on me apologized and now were friends.”
“For a lot of people seeing this play, their first reaction will be that this doesn’t happen, but at the beginning of this year, I was bullied,” said Gracie Spencer. “These characters are very accurate.”
“Actually, ‘Everyday People’ kind of downplays what’s going on,” McNay said.
Other cast members are Megan Peters, Chelsea Montgomery, Emily Weston, Lexi Hale, Mariah Laman, Liza Erwin, Katie Bazurto, Rico McKay and Taylor Madison. Rashawn Davis and Emily Folk served on the tech crew, and KOAM TV assisted in producing a mock newscast on the girl’s suicide.
“Rhonda White has been very helpful in putting together material and hand-outs for the teachers,” Shaw said.
Students are also starting the “Be Nice Initiative” as an instrument of positive change.
“Over 24 kids here are going be involved,” Shaw said. “They will have little notes, kind of like post-it notes, that can be used for messages like ‘Good luck on your math test’ or ‘I like your haircut’.”
