For the past week a selected group of students from my grade have been putting togther a play for an antibullying summit at the American Bank center for school administrators. It sounds really boring but it's been really great. To start off with, our teacher/director, Ms. M, told us we could write our own script. So for those of you who don't know me, I am a control freak. Before anyone even began to write ideas down on paper I had turned in a script to be reviewed. Ms. M decided that she liked it so we began to learn lines. The storyline revoloves around three main charcters; Russell, John, and Danielle. Russell was played by my good friend, Quentin Arispe and was a teen who just came out to his school that he was gay. Because of this, he loses all of his friends but by the end, he gets them back and support of the school. John, played by Douglass Hagemeister, is at first a life long friend of Russell but cannot accept that he is gay so leaves him. Once he sees how Russell is being treated however comes back to the rescue. Danielle completes the trio of friends and is the martyr of the show. Danielle was played by me and gets cyberbullied until she eventually commits suicide.
We had rehearsals everyday during 7th period and at Aurora Arts Theatre. When we were at the theatre, the owner came to watch us do a dress rehearsal. "You've got a great set of kids you've got here, RaMina." said the owner.
"Yeah, I made sure to pick my absolute best." replied Ms. M.
At that we all smiled.
When we arrived at the summit we realized that we were the only group who were here to have fun. We got on a bus with kids from Ray and Collegiate and immeadiately noticed that they were all buisiness. Those kids talked about the matter at hand while he sat at the back of the bus belting Book of Mormon and Wicked songs. Once we got settled in at our table we went to the bathroom and made a makeshift dressing room. We got into costume and put on stage makeup until we were stage ready. Then we returned to the Baker table to enjoy a fancy meal. How our school district could even afford it, I have no idea.
Then we actually particiapted in the summit. It soon became obvious as we were grouped with the Ray kids that we were chosen to participate for different reasons. Most of us just let the juniors do the talking but then there was Quentin who wouldn't stop talking. Kate drew elephants on her script, I was on Twitter, but every now and again we made (somewhat) sigifigant contributions to the conversation.
Finally it was our time to go and perform. I was so proud of the cast that was assembled because everyone did fantsticly. The audience ate it up! When Russell announced that he was gay, people stood and appluaded. When John left Russell they all boo-ed. When my suicide scene started, one guy in the back yelled "DON'T DO IT!" Finally when we all went for bows, we got a standing ovation. As we walked offstage reporters there covering the summit came to talk to us and take pictures. The superintendent came and told us how well we did. A teacher from Ray came up and commended us as well; we even made her cry.
Pretty good for a Monday.
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