The plot revolves around the need to get help for friends who are having a difficult time.
MONTAGUE –Seventeen students from Sudden Scene Theater, an elective course offered to juniors at Franklin County Technical School, will bring a message of encouragement to students at a southern Vermont high school as they present their original play, “A Day in the Life,” Friday in Brattleboro.
The plot revolves around the need to get help for friends who are having a difficult time.
“The message we’re trying to get across is that if your friend is hurting or suffering in any way, it’s OK to talk to somebody and try to find help for your friend,” said Dean A. Scranton, an English/theater teacher involved with the production. “It’s not a betrayal of friendship. It’s the right thing to do.”
Paul N. Cohen, Brattleboro Union High School director of counseling and a former principal of Franklin County Technical School, invited Scranton and the students he directs to create a play to encourage students to seek a trusted adult when they or a friend are in a troubling situation. “There is real power in peer-to-peer presentations of issues that deal with teenage problems,” he said. “I’m really impressed with the work he and his students produce.”
Plays performed in the past 15 years focused on topics like dating, alcohol and drug abuse, gay rights, race and pregnancy. “We present potent teen issues through an art form to make (the issues) more accessible,” Scranton said.
A sophomore Brattleboro Union High School student committed suicide in 2011, and “the aftermath continues to resonate through the building,” Cohen said. The tragedy has led to conversations among the school administration and counseling department about ways to encourage students to confide in a trusted adult about their own concerns or concerns about a friend.
Samantha Tan, Zachary M. Swenson and Alissa J. Ames, clockwise from top, rehearse for "A Day in the Life," an original play created by Sudden Scene Theater at Franklin County Technical School in Turners Falls. Students are scheduled to perform it at Brattleboro Union High School in Vermont Friday. According to the 2011 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey prepared by the Vermont Department of Health Division of Health Surveillance, in the preceding 12 months, 19 percent of all students in grades nine through 12 felt sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks, 8 percent made a suicide plan, and 4 percent attempted suicide.
Females were significantly more likely than males to feel sad or hopeless.
Reported suicide attempts declined from 9 percent in 1993 to 4 percent in 2011.
“We want to give (the Brattleboro students) a sense of relief that it’s OK to get help. They don’t have to be afraid,” said Jaime L. Judge, 17, of Orange.
“We’re giving them a sense that they are not alone,” said Zachary M. Swenson, 17, of Sunderland.
“We’re hoping to bring them hope and courage to step up and say something” when a friend is having difficulties, said Anna Vasquez-Wright, 17, of Colrain. “We hope to help them heal” from tragedies they have faced.
Contemplation of suicide is not the only issue of concern. Students should seek out a trusted adult to express concern over other issues like eating disorders, date violence, racism, homophobia and substance abuse.
“We want them to turn to an adult for help. As adults, we turn to other adults for help,” said Steven R. Perrin, principal of Brattleboro Union High School. “We want kids to look out for each other and get help.”
He said he and other school leaders were looking for a program to “help us frame this issue” of getting help, and though commercial programs are available, they chose to go with the Franklin County Technical High School one because they determined it would “resonate” with the Brattleboro high school students and be more effective.
Sudden Scene Theater uses improvisation, writing, research, theater games and activities to create theater pieces that have strong themes related to student issues. The plays are original, student-owned and operated. “My role is director, but students are responsible for all characterizations and content,” Scranton said.
The plays ring true because of their “authentic voice,” he explained. “Because they write it…(and) create the characters, when they present it, it is realistic and what they want to get across to an audience.”
After research, writing and improvisations, Sudden Scene Theater brought the rough draft to the Brattleboro high school for the administration, guidance, support staff and a few students to review. “They responded very positively to our play and following discussion and felt that we addressed the issue in an appropriate and artistic way,” Scranton said.
“We have an incredibly responsive school from the top down,” Cohen said, noting that the administration advocates for all adults to pay close attention to students and that the teachers are “student-focused,” not just in terms of core educational materials but “take wonderful, proactive roles in all aspects of student life.”
Students—indeed society in general—face more challenges and expectations today than perhaps ever before. In addition, teens’ “social life in a 24-hour-a-day process” thanks to social media, Perrin said. “They never get a chance to disconnect.”
A student-run discussion with the audience will take place after the play. “Giving voice to students to talk about meaningful aspects of their lives and empowering students to speak honestly and without direction from adults is powerful,” Scranton said.
There will be a table in the cafeteria at which students can identify on paper adults they could turn to, and those papers will be hung in the school. “They can write down who they trust—Mom, a teacher, a member of the clergy,” Cohen said. “It will get them to think about who they can turn to” in the event they are ever faced with a personal crisis or the crisis of a friend.
“We are thrilled Dean and his students are willing to do this,” Perrin said. “It’s incredibly thoughtful and generous to give us all this time and energy.”
The 25-minute play will be presented twice Friday to ninth- and tenth-grade audiences; it incorporates two musical numbers into the story line.