Gen1.0Brief

= **Cyber bullying theatre for young audiences performance brief** = __Concept:__ To create a touring schools theatre for young audience or theatre in education performance that attempts to develop awareness of the complex problem that is cyber bullying and its consequences. It will be using the various real stories as stimulus for creating the performance. Examples are the story of Lori Drew and Megan Meier, Alex Teka, and the Werribe DvD case as well as possibly others. Additional stimulus material taken from contemporary media, academic literature, non-academic literature, art, improvisation and discussion will also be used. I want to explore the complexity of the issue of cyber bullying and focus on how the choices people make can affect a wider community. The show will be targeted at secondary school students of approximate age range 12-16. The group devising process will involve a certain degree of democracy and it will involve researching, devising, scoring and rehearsing as part of that process. The importance and focus on each of these will vary week to week. It will be an extremely low budget and will utilize digital technologies for the performance and during the process.

__Vision of form and content__ The performance will be a post-modern exploration of the issue of cyber bullying, the people involved, and its consequences. It will be post modern in both form and content. It will explore the lives of three individuals - a bully, bystander and victim - their lives are entwined and the choices they make directly affect the others. This exploration of their lives will investigate who they are and how they live in an attempt to make them all look human with both flaws and merits. This will allow us to show that bullying is a behavior not a personal characteristic. We will show the behaviors taking place and why they took place although we will ensure that we show that it is a behaviour that can have dire consequences. These consequences can be avoided if strong, hard and moral choices are made by the bystander's in the situation.

To achieve all of this it could include moments of Artaudian cruelty, Brechtian alienation, movement and dance, forum theatre and other forms of participatory theatre, and other elements of non-naturalism. Attempt to use digital media and elements of cyber-drama. And more than likely be minimalist in design. What this really means:
 * a torture scene where the victim character is tortured with key boards, mouses, mobile phones, etc;
 * use of film, t.v, animation and other forms of contemporary media;
 * dancing the digital generation divide;
 * active audience involvement in deciding which way the show should be taken;
 * passing a piece of paper around the audience and letting them contribute;
 * a mobile phone set in the space with its number active allowing the audience to text;
 * mobile phone Chinese whispers;

__What the research says:__ There are a number of important factors that need addressing considering what the research says and how that will affect us in the creation process.
 * Portraying bullying behavior naturalistically can lead to copy cat behavior therefore we will be attempting to present cyber bullying behavior in a non naturalistic way. This a little bit of a red herring though because we want students to identify what bully behavior is so they can be informed but not so they can copy cat it.
 * This is the same case for suicide and the research says immediately STOP avoid suicide at all costs. The question is how could we present suicide in a manner in which isn't promoting it but developing an awareness that it occurs as a result of bullying and it has horrible effects on the friends and family around them.
 * We want to portray all of the characters as real humans with flaws and merits although we must be careful when addressing the victim character because we need to avoid victim blaming.
 * Similarly we need to avoid demonising the bully character as an inherently evil being who only wants to inflict pain and suffering. Bullying is a behavior not a personality type, bully's generally have reasons why they bully or just make stupid mistakes (especially adolescents). This is not to excuse the behavior but to enforce no-blame interventions
 * demonising the bully character. A bully is not a inherently evil person, people make mistakes especially adolecents
 * the bystanders are the people who have the power in the situation, although it takes an very strong, empathetic and moral person to make a stand and say that something is wrong. This is the case for adults but especially for adolescents struggling to find their identify.

__Educational aims:__ Primary aim:
 * To develop an awareness of the complex problem of cyber-bullying and its consequences.

Subsidiary aims:
 * To explore how the issue of cyber bullying could be dealt with.
 * To explore what cyber bullying involves.
 * To explore the complexity of the bully, bystander and victim dichotomies.
 * To explore how the media is contributing to or helping this issue.


 * // Hey Champs- this is my client brief assignment that was //**
 * // handed in on Monday 18th of August….hope this helps //**
 * // when you write your own //**
 * //Love kacey //**

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Our Cyber-Bullying performance is being created on the request that there needs to be recognition of this new-age form of bullying and will be designed to explore the complexity of the issue of cyber bullying and focus on how the choices people make can affect a wider community. The show will be targeted at secondary school students of approximate age range 12-16. The ensemble has chosen to focus on the adolescent age group as the research shows that the majority of cyber-bullying cases occur within this age group. ======

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Glen Waverley Secondary College is a state school that supports a daily population of over two thousand people, including over 1900 students from years 7 to 12, and over 150 staff. This population makes it the equivalent of a small country town, or a medium-sized corporate enterprise. ======

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The performance necessitates that is a touring piece, so knowledge of the performance space may not be realised until the actual time and date of performance. However the general details are known that each performance will be held on each of the participating college’s grounds in a classroom. ======

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Through this performance, the clients’ main aims are to develop awareness and acknowledgement of the complex problem of cyber-bullying and its consequences, within the specified school and its surrounding community. The client hopes to make secondary school aged students’ aware that cyber-bullying is a legitimate form of bullying and cannot be ignored or passed over as an external issue and not one of the involved the school. The client aims of the performance are to explore how the issue of cyber bullying could be dealt with and specific examples of coping strategies. ======

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The client’s aims are not only in the interest of the students within the school community, but the teachers as well. Teachers need to be educated on this topic as they are entering a new generation of bullying and action needs to be achieved. The client wants the performance to make teachers aware that cyber-bullying is a school issue as much as it is an individual student issue. ======

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Our vision for the performance is to create a touring schools theatre for young audience or theatre in education performance that attempts to develop awareness of the complex problem that is cyber bullying and its consequences. ======

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The performance will be a post-modern exploration of the issue of cyber bullying, the people involved, and its consequences. It will be post modern in both form and content. It will explore the lives of three individuals - a bully, bystander and victim - their lives are entwined and the choices they make directly affect the others. The performance aims to focus on characters that are relatable to those of the people in the audience, i.e. the characters will be school students in the adolescent age range. ======

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This performance will explore and investigate the lives of the three central characters of the bully, the victim and the bystander. The performance will discover the matter of who they are and how they live in an attempt to make them all look human with both flaws and merits. By creating the performance this way it will allow us to show that bullying is behaviour not a personal characteristic. It will show the behaviours taking place and why they took place, although the performance will ensure that it shows that bullying and in particular, cyber-bullying is a behaviour that can have dire consequences. For example, those circumstances which have occurred in the stories of Alex Teka, Lori Drew and Megan Meier. The performance will show that the consequences of the bullying behaviour can be avoided if strong, hard and moral choices are made by the bystander's in the situation. ======

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To achieve all of this the performance will include moments of Artaudian cruelty, Brechtian alienation, aspects of LeCoq and Mnouchkine movement, gesture and dance. The performance will also include elements of forum theatre and other forms of participatory theatre, and other elements of non-naturalism. The performance will use digital media and elements of cyber-drama. Scenes in which will include these aspects and elements of theatre are:======
 * A torture scene where the victim character is tortured with key boards, mouses, mobile phones, etc;
 * Use of film, television, animation and other forms of contemporary media;
 * A movement piece that describes the digital generation divide;
 * Active audience involvement in deciding which way the performance should be taken;
 * Passing a piece of paper around the audience and letting them contribute;
 * A mobile phone set in the space with its number active allowing the audience to text the phone with suggestions and comments
 * A mobile phone Chinese whispers.

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Nick Mawson, the facilitator of the cyber-bullying performance has collated through months of prior research a concrete understanding of the educationally pertinent issue that is cyber-bullying. In order for the group creators to start working on such a complex, and critically acclaimed issue, it is necessary for the creators to have their own awareness and knowledge of appropriate statistics and the research that has been undertaken in the issue. Nick Mawson has through research addressed cyber-bullying and ways of portraying it to an audience. The following are dot points have been researched and shared with the group are intended to be addressed throughout the development of our performance piece. ======

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· To portray certain bullying behaviours naturalistically may lead to copy- cat behaviour, therefore this has dictated the way the performance will present these cyber bullying behaviours and this will be in a non naturalistic way. This a little bit of a red herring though because the aims of the performance are for students to identify what cyber-bully behaviour is so they can be informed but not so they can copy cat it. ======

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· This is the same case for suicide. The research says to not show any acts of suicide/self mutilation or harm and to avoid it at all costs. This is because students who may be victimised through cyber-bullying could see this as the only option, the only coping strategy. The question is how can the performance present suicide in a manner in which isn't promoting it but developing awareness that it occurs as a result of bullying and it has horrible effects on the friends and family around them? ======

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· Characters should be portrayed as real humans with flaws and merits although when approaching the creation of the character, the actors must be careful when addressing the victim to avoid victim blaming. ======

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· Similarly the performance should avoid demonising the bully character as an inherently evil being who only wants to inflict pain and suffering. Bullying is a behaviour not a personality type, bullies generally have reasons why they bully or just make stupid mistakes (especially adolescents). This is not to excuse the behaviour but to enforce no-blame interventions. ======

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· The bystanders are the people who have the power in the situation; although it takes a very strong, empathetic and moral person to make a stand and say that something is wrong. This is the case for adults but especially for adolescents struggling to find their identity. ======

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The rehearsal process will utilise the specified hours by themed structured improvisational workshops. Nick Mawson, facilitator, has developed ideas and group discussions by a variety of improvisational workshops that are designed to expand upon issues and areas of cyber-bullying that are needed to be addressed within the performance. ======

An example of different workshops that Mawson has led the group in are:

 * Construction of a variety of freeze frames that look at confronting snap shot images of cyber-bullying and coping strategies
 * A more confronting activity that Mawson involved the group on was for each ensemble member to send an abusive text messages to another ensemble member, to explore the emotions of how it felt to be on the receiving end of cyber-bullying act

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The use of real life stories will provide a stimulus material to explore within the rehearsal process, which will eventuate in creating the performance. Using further stimulus material that has been taken from contemporary media, (such as current affair like television programmes) academic literature, non-academic literature, art, and ensemble discussion will also be used. The rehearsal process allows the ensemble to converse in specified topics related to bullying, in particular cyber-bullying to create more ideas for workshopping. A certain degree of democracy has to occur within the ensemble collaboration as that will instigate the creation of performance, and this democracy will involve delegating the researching, devising, scoring and rehearsing as part of the overall process. ======

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 Another aspect of the rehearsal process is to continually document and research our findings on cyber-bullying. Mawson has created an easy way of doing this in an ironically digital way, by creating a wiki. The wiki is designed for ensemble members to contribute and edit the page to their liking with the aim of creating a more succinct research, developmental, journal-like documentation of the creation of the performance. ======

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As a means of implementing a digital forum theatre the ensemble have designed performance to have a mobile phone on stage. The intention of this is so students (who are audience members) can send text messages about their opinions and feelings regarding issues that are raised in the performance. ======

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Another way the ensemble have designed to assess the success is to include a sort of question and answer feedback session at the conclusion of each performance. This session is to be run not only with the student audience members, but as well as the teacher audience members, as a way of fulfilling the clients aims to address teacher education on cyber-bullying. ======

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Finally we hope to gain written feedback from both staff and students as an anonymous reflection on how they felt about our performance and the issues raised throughout. We feel this approach may be the most effective as the anonymity allows the for real thoughts and feelings regarding the performance. ======


 * 1) Nicholson, H 2005, //Applied drama: the gift of theatre//, Palgrave Macmillian, Basingstoke.


 * 1) Lodge, J and Frydenberg, E 2007, //Cyber-bullying in Australian schools: Profiles of adolescent coping and insight for school practitioners//, The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, Vol. 24, Number 1, University Of Melbourne. Melbourne

** Cool, **
Sorry about the crappy changes in font. i dont know how to fix that but you can still read it. Just note that all underlined words are sub-headings....thanks