I had long guarded a dark secret that seemed to scar and define me in intermingled ways. The source of my desire to imagine, create and manifest characters was born out of self-defense.
When you experience bullying, fight or flight is not always a choice; I decided to fight and hide in my own shadow. It was a way to disappear from those who would wish to ridicule or harm me while still standing before them.
Although I was extremely lucky to not have been devoured by depression when my aggressors came after me, not everyone is as fortunate.
Gone are the days of folded notes and whispers that take time to travel. In their place is one click and millions of shares. Technology has surpassed our emotional evolution. The onslaught of aggression that is now psychological bullying can be a deadly weapon within this new digital society.
Cyberbullying removes the aggressors from the humanity of their actions and leaves them without any sense of responsibility:
81% of teens say bullying online is easier to get away with
3 million kids per month are absent from school due to bullying
20% of kids who are cyberbullied contemplate suicide, and 1 in 10 attempt it.
(http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/07-10-12-scourge.html)
Gone are the days of folded notes and whispers that take time to travel. In their place is one click and millions of shares. Technology has surpassed our emotional evolution. The onslaught of aggression that is now psychological bullying can be a deadly weapon within this new digital society.
Cyberbullying removes the aggressors from the humanity of their actions and leaves them without any sense of responsibility:
81% of teens say bullying online is easier to get away with
3 million kids per month are absent from school due to bullying
20% of kids who are cyberbullied contemplate suicide, and 1 in 10 attempt it.
(http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/07-10-12-scourge.html)
Humanizing the trauma of bullying in a performance piece where the psychological damage can be embodied and openly expressed will hopefully allow for a substantive empathetic experience among viewers.
Witnessing residual trauma which impacts the life and decisions of the victim as an adult can be a powerful theatrical device. It allows those would-be aggressors to recognize their role in the cascading aftermath of their choices.
Witnessing residual trauma which impacts the life and decisions of the victim as an adult can be a powerful theatrical device. It allows those would-be aggressors to recognize their role in the cascading aftermath of their choices.
This is a multi-layered performance covering several components of the culture of bullying and the resulting isolation and lingering effects.
The piece exposes the perspective of the victim of peer bullying, and also shifts perspective to a secondary aggressor, a pedophile.
The piece exposes the perspective of the victim of peer bullying, and also shifts perspective to a secondary aggressor, a pedophile.
The hope is to prompt discussion and awareness of intersecting societal dynamics resulting from bullying. It’s for those within a community to recognize when someone has been left behind, socially and emotionally abandoned by their peers and an easy target for a predator.