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Student playwrights tackle bullying
Tribune photo by KEITH MORELLI
A group of youngsters are undertaking the heady subject of schoolyard bullying for a summer drama project at the Patel Conservancy in Tampa.
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Published: June 23, 2009
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Schoolyard bullying seems a heady subject for a summer drama project but that's what a group of youngsters are undertaking at the Patel Conservancy in Tampa.
This week, the group of 15 is applying the final touches to the play they wrote and staged. Under the director of director Jean Calandra, the production will take place on Saturday and 150 are expected to attend, she said.
The subject matter may seem a bit somber for the group made up of middle and high school students from various public and private schools in Hillsborough County. But it's a topic they are intimately familiar with, she said, one they see all the time in their everyday lives.
The production comes a month after a brutal bullying incident was reported at Walker Middle School in Odessa, in which a group of teenagers raped a boy in the locker room.
Calandra said the students were aware of the incident, but decided to stay away from any scenes in the play that drew on that case.
The subject matter idea came from the 1930s "living newspaper" stage productions where topics of the day were examined in the theater, which not only told of issues, but offered solutions, said Calandra.
She threw out the idea when the summer camp began and watched as the students penned vignettes that are tied together by a common place and some characters in the production. The play's title: "It's Not What It Seems."
"The play focuses on bullying," Calandra said, "and it's from the perspective of the kids. It shows the audience how this bullying problem is not just about bullies and victims."
She said there is some light moments, like when parents and teachers just don't hear when children talk.
The dialogue comes straight from the students, she said.
"Almost all of it, I'd say 95 percent of it, is based on real events that have happened to these kids," she said.
The project is part of the Summerplay camp, where students spend about a month staging a production of their own making. Calandra has been in charge of the camp for the past 19 years, first at the University of South Florida and over the past five summers, at the conservatory.
Tuesday morning, the group rehearsed their lines, while sitting on chairs in the corner of the auditorium. Calandra and a handful of helping college and conservatory interns offered tips on how to best deliver lines and how to move on stage.
Calandra hopes the production will reach students who come to see it.
"The theater can really be a tool for social action," she said, "and be entertaining."
Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760
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