January 30, 2009 - february 13, 2009
LIVE ON the
FAMILY STAGE
Ages
12+
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By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
AAMOF*,
THE 411 ON LINDA DAUGHERTY
M
s. Daugherty’s plays have been produced at the Dallas Children’s
Theater; The Kennedy Center; Stage One, The Louisville
Children’s Theatre; Baltimore’s Children’s Theater Association;
Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre; Kansas City’s Theatre for Young America;
Richmond’s Theatre IV; Portland’s Northwest Children’s Theatre;
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; Fort Worth’s Casa Mañana
Theatre; The Children’s Theatre of Charlotte; Savonlinna City Theatre,
Finland; The Edinburgh Festival; New York University’s Department of
Educational Theater; and in community theaters, colleges and schools
throughout the United States. National touring productions of her
plays have been presented in more than
150 cities in 41 states. Over twenty of Ms.
Daugherty’s plays have premiered at the
Dallas Children’s Theater, named as one of
the country’s top five children’s theaters by
Time Magazine. Her play, Bless Cricket, Crest
Toothpaste, and Tommy Tune, is a winner of
the Bonderman/Indiana University/Purdue
University/Indiana Repertory Theatre
Playwriting Competition, the Dallas-Ft.
Worth Theater Critics Forum Award for
New Plays, and the Southwest Theatre
Association’s Coleman A. Jennings
Award for Best Children’s Script. In
addition, Bless Cricket... is included in
the book, Theatre for Children: Fifteen
Classic Plays published by St. Martin
* As A Matter Of Fact
1
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
Press and is excerpted in the book, Scenes and Monologues for Young
Actors, published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Bless Cricket... is
also featured in the April, 2000, issue of American Theatre and the
ongoing community education program, The Jellybean Conspiracy,
affiliated with the University of Missouri-Kansas City Institute for
Human Development. Ms. Daugherty has received the Southwest Theatre
Association’s Playwright Award for Best New Children’s Script, the Orlin
Corey Outstanding Playwright Award and five Dallas Theatre League
nominations for Outstanding New Play. The National Endowment for
the Arts has awarded grants to Dallas Children’s Theater productions
of Ms. Daugherty’s African Tales of Earth and Sky and Coyote Tales,
which was also a recipient of a Theatre Communications Group grant.
She has dramatized three books by celebrated children’s author and
illustrator, Steven Kellogg. Ms. Daugherty has served as a consultant
to the San Antonio Independent School District’s Learning About
Learning creative arts program and as Education Director of the Dallas
Children’s Theater where she is currently Playwright in Residence. As
an actress, she has appeared on Broadway, at The Manhattan Theater
Club, and in regional theaters including the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago
(where she received a Jefferson Award nomination), Seattle Repertory
Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Indiana Repertory Theater, Casa
Mañana Theater in Ft. Worth, and the Dallas Children’s Theater. With a
grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, Ms. Daugherty’s new
play, The Secret Life of Girls, which deals with the destructive world of
girls’ bullying, was presented as a staged reading in the Spring of 2006
at Dallas Children’s Theater’s Young Adult Festival of Dramatic Works
and was followed by a full production in the Spring of 2007.
–From http://www.lindadaugherty.com/menu.htm
2
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
The Day of the
Performance
P
lan to arrive 15 to 20 minutes early so that
the play may begin promptly. Our theatre
holds almost 500 people. Unloading and
seating that many people takes time.
R
eview proper audience behavior with
students.
Remind them that it is
acceptable to clap and laugh when
appropriate, and any unnecessary noise is
distracting to the performers on stage. As it is
a live performance, it cannot be stopped and
restarted.
I
nform the students that there will be a “talk
back” session following the performance.
Cast members will come out to answer
questions from the audience regarding the
play.
3
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
FMTYEWTK*
According to a Kids Health Kids Poll of
more than 1,200 boys and girls aged 9 to
13, for every 100 kids, an average of:
Eight are bullied every day.
Seven are bullied every week, but not every day.
Some 33 are bullied once in a while, but not every week.
Kids report more bullying than students in grades 9 and 10.
Almost 9 out of 10 kids say they’ve seen someone being
bullied.
For every 25 middle school kids, an average of 2 kids are
harassed daily and another 2 to 3 are bullied weekly.3
Modern technology has added new ways to bully; cyberbullying.
It has reached epidemic proportions in American schools and
communities.
Sixty-six percent of youth are teased at least once a month, and
nearly one-third of youth are bullied at least once a month.1
Six out of 10 American teens witness bullying at least once a
day.2
For children in grades 6 - 10, nearly one in six — or 3.2
million — are victims of bullying each year and 3.7 million
are bullies.3
* Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know
4
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
Over the course of a year, nearly one-fourth of students
across grades reported that they had been harassed or bullied
on school property because of their race, ethnicity, gender,
religion, sexual orientation or disability.4
Nearly one-third of middle-schoolers have been the object of
sexual jokes, comments or gestures. Another 15 percent have
been bullied or harassed because of their religion or race.5
For every gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student who
reported being harassed, four straight students said they were
harassed for being perceived as gay or lesbian. 6
An estimated 160,000 children miss school every day out of
fear of attack or intimidation by other students.7
One out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so
because of repeated bullying.8
Victims of bullying are more likely to suffer physical problems
such as common colds and coughs, sore throats, poor appetite
and night waking.9
Those who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed
and far more likely to be suicidal.3
By age 23, children who were bullied in middle school were
more depressed and had lower self-esteem than their peers
who had not been bullied. 10
Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75 percent of
school-shooting incidents, including the fatal shootings at
Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, and Santana
High School in Santee, California.11
5
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
Among boys who said they had bullied others at least once a
week in school, more than half had carried a weapon in the
past month, 43 percent had carried a weapon in school, 39
percent were involved in frequent fighting, and 46 percent
reported having been injured in a fight.12
6
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
MIHURAP*
What Are the Signs of Being Bullied?
http://family.samhsa.gov/teach/middleschool_bullies.aspx
T
he best way to know what’s going on in your child’s life-at school,
after school, during practice, or while hanging out with friends-is
to be involved. Create a daily routine in which you and your child
chat casually about his day. Take the time to listen, ask questions, and
respond.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration’s (SAMHSA) report Take Action Against Bullying, there are
many warning signs that may show a child is being bullied. Signs to watch
for include a child:
Acting depressed.
Withdrawing socially.
Complaining frequently of illnesses.
Not wanting to go to school or avoiding certain classes.
Bringing home damaged possessions.
Reporting things “lost.”
Stating that she feels picked on or persecuted.
Displaying mood swings, including frequent crying.
Talking about running away.
Attempting to take protection to school, such as a stick,
rock, or knife.
* May I Have Your Attention, Please?
7
8
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
J4F *
Talk about it. What does it mean to be a victim? When one sees the
word, victim, what image(s) come to mind?
- How does it feel to be excluded or isolated?
- Why is popularity so important?
- How can friendship be used as a weapon?
“A word is worth 1,000 pictures!” Ask students to think of one
word to describe themselves. Using magazines and pictures have
each student create a collage representing him/herself.
What is a bully? Split students into 4 groups. Each group represents
a different type of bullying: verbal, social, physical, and cyber. The
groups should create posters about each type. What does each feel
like? Look like? Sound like?
Give students the “What’s Going on at our School?” survey.
Remind students not to put their names on them. Hold a discussion
about what could be done to prevent some of the information provided
on the sheets. (Survey from Let’s Get Real, Respect for All Project)
Write about it! Ask students to consider the following questions:
What are 5 words to describe you? What do you like best about
yourself? What would someone be surprised to know about you?
What might people think about you that isn’t true?
* Just For Fun
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
Check out the following books for teens:
- Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls write about bullies, cliques, popularity and jealousy by Rachel Simmons
- Please Stop Laughing at Me: One woman’s
inspirational story. By Jodee Blanco
-Understanding Teenage Depression: A guide to
diagnosis, treatment and management. by Maureen
Empfield and Nicholas Bakalar
- Life Lists for Teens: Tips, steps, hints and how-tos
for growing up, getting along, learning and having
fun. By Pamela Espeland
- Stick Up for Yourself: Every kid’s guide to personal
power and positive self-esteem by Gershen Kaufman
and Lev Raphael
- Teen Ink 2: MoreVoices, More Visions, Written by
Teens. By Stephanie H. Meyer and John Meyer
- Taking the Bully by the Horns By Kathy Noll with Dr.
Jay Carter
- Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent
girls. By Mary Pipher
- Monster By Walter Dean Myers.
- Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson
- I AM the Cheese By Robert Corimer
- Feed By M.T. Anderson
- The Skin I’m In By Sharon Flake
- Cut by Patricia McCormack
- Thirteen Reasons Why By Jay Asher
9
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
The Box Activity. This activity comes from a PBS unit/video on
School Violence (http://www.pbs.org/inthemix/educators/lessons/
schoolviol2/). It causes students to look outside their own comfort
zone. The activity requires many newspapers and masking tape.
1. Introduce the concept of “Boxes” by explaining that we all are
social beings and we enjoy being with others who share our
interests. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand what keeps us
isolated from others that aren’t in our social group-- or “Box.”
Suggest that students close their eyes and envision all the people
that they’re close to, limiting at this time to friends, not family.
Ask them to draw a mental “Box” around themselves and their
friends, giving them a few minutes to really get a picture of their
“Box.”
2. Ask the students to now reflect on the qualities or characteristics
that draw them to someone. Have them each share only one
characteristic with the group. Students will come up with things
like “a great smile,” “someone who’s honest,” “someone who
doesn’t talk behind a friend’s back,” “someone who has a sense
of humor,” etc.
3. Ask students to look in their “Box” again and think about the
characteristics they’ve heard from everyone. Have them reflect
on which ones had meaning for them, which ones weren’t so
important, and whether or not their “Box” contain people who
meet their desired characteristics.
4. Ask students to now visualize themselves holding off people from
coming in their “Box.” Students should share with the group the
attributes or characteristics of people who turn them off and whom
they want to push away. There will most likely be a lot of opposite
statements to the characteristics stated before, but also their
personal styles or comfort zones will now come out. Examples
might be “someone who’s loud,” “someone who’s snotty,” etc.
10
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
5. Have the students reflect on how other groups judge their “Box.”
Warn them that they are going to be asked to share this with
the group. Their honesty never ceases to amaze! This part of the
activity is usually an eye-opener to many. When you’re on the
outside of a group, you never really know that even being in the
so-called “popular” group can be a painful place. As the leader,
try to remember the details so that you can pull things together
for them later.
6. Have students then to share whether they feel judged because
of others in the group. (At this point it doesn’t have to be each
member sharing, but rather volunteers.) Examples: “someone got
caught smoking pot, so now everyone thinks we all smoke pot,”
“someone in the Box is super-smart, and I really have to work
really hard to get good grades, but everyone thinks it’s so easy for
me,” etc.
7. Review with students the reasons for this exercise. First, see if
students can tell you why you’ve been asking them to share these
various ideas and how talking about these things impacts on the
programs they’re going to participate in. Usually, you’ll get even
more answers than you could come up with yourself. If not, be
prepared with your own reasons. Go back to things that they’ve
said about both hurt feelings and secure feelings.
8. Wrap up the lesson with an activity that shows students that there
really is tremendous overlap between groups:
- Have students divide themselves up spontaneously into groups
that reflect the type of music they listen to.
- Instruct them to talk and mingle, and that they should take
note of someone who likes the same type of music as they do,
who they assumed was totally different than themselves.
11
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
- You can play more with this concept by going from group to
group and demanding the names of various groups and seeing
who likes which individual music groups and make them
move from group to group. Someone who likes rap may also
like a particular jazz musician or someone they perceive, as
the classical music aficionado may also adore punk. There are
lots of surprises in this activity.
- Finish by asking the music groups to participate in a “Paper
Boxes” activity. Rearrange the groups as you see necessary,
but the key is to have the friendship groups mixed up.
- Give each group a stack of newspaper and roll of masking
tape.
- Instruct them that they will be given 10 minutes to plan a paper
box without a floor, that can house them all. Each “Paper Box”
must be free-standing; students can’t hold it up or even touch
the materials. The goal is for the box to stand for at least one
minute with the students inside it.
- After the 10 minutes of planning, students then have 10
minutes to build their “Paper Box” in silence.
- Time all the groups for one minute to see which boxes stay
up.
- Hopefully, this activity will give students a sense of
accomplishment and the understanding that they can have fun
with a new “Box” of people.
9. End the lesson by giving students a task. Tell them that you’re not
asking them to take down the walls of their old “Boxes,” but just to step
out of them once in a while...and perhaps even invite in someone new.
–FROM http://www.pbs.org/inthemix/educators/lessons/schoolviol2/
12
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
Bullies come in all shapes, genders, and sizes! After watching the
play, it is evident how cruel girls can be. Visit the following site for
more information: Girls and Bullying http://www.ncpc.org/topics/byaudience/parents/for-girls/girls-and-bullying
Use the Internet to go right to the source!
http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adult/indexAdult.asp?Area=cyberbullying site for
cyberbullying
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson935/info.pdf general bully info
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/bullies.k12.2.html bullying in schools
http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp?area=main stop bullying now
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/23/MNGTFPVVON1.DTL
article on Olivia, a girl who went through bullying
http://www.nsteens.org/videos/cyberbullying/msterribletext1.pdf -real life stories and
group activities,
http://www.nsteens.org/videos/cyberbullying/ - cartoon video mixed with teen input.
http://www.nsteens.org/comics/ -comic on cyber bullying
http://teenadvice.about.com/od/violencebullying/a/girlbullies.htm -article about
how/why girls bully
http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm# -series of videos and activity cards
about cyber bullying, grouped by middle/high school levels.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/21/earlyshow/living/caught/main681867.
shtml link to 5-minute video from The Early Show. (Victim was called a name
inappropriate for school, but it is used only once.)
http://www.antibullying.net/
13
14
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
WAN2TLK*
If you need someone to talk to, there are resources out there to help.
Crisis Services 24 hr. helpline
834-3131
Kid’s Helpline
834-1144
Child & Family Services
681-5718
Child & Adolescent Treatment
835-4011
ALATEEN & ALANON
856-2520
Avalon Eating Disorders
839-0999
GLYS (Gay & Lesbian Youth Service) 855-0221
http://www.bullying.org/index.cfm
Statistics sources: From http://groundspark.org/our-films-and-campaigns/lets-getreal/lgr_stats
1 2002 National Survey of Students Grades 5 - 12, Families and Work Institute
2 National Crime Prevention Council, 2003
3 Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, September 2003
4 2001 - 2002 California Student Survey
5 National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center
6 National Mental Health Association, 2002
7 National Education Association, 1995
8 Oklahoma Health Department, 2001
9 Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003
10 Dan Olweus, Univeristy of Bergen, Norway, 1993
11 US Secret Service Report, May 2002
12 National Institute of Health, 2003
* Want To Talk?
This TASK Guide for Theatre of Youth’s Production of THE SECRET LIFE OF GIRLS was created by
Maureen A. Pusateri Kuciewski. Please e-mail any questions to mkuciewski@hotmail.com
By Linda Daugherty
Originally commissioned and produced
by Dallas Children’s Theatre
15