STAGE RAGE

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The past three days the students at St. Benedict's Prep presented the results of their five-week projects. The freshman Backpacking course, required of all freshmen, involved backpacking 53 miles on the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey. A powerful presentation came from a project that involved two teachers and eight students on a road trip through the deep south to visit places that are significant in the history of the Civil Rights movement.

For me the most powerful presentation, though, was "Stage Rage," a play written and acted by students dealing with personal struggles in their lives -- usually involving their families.

A few years ago, when we were offered a grant that called for an artist and a counselor to collaborate with at risk kids on an arts project. The basic idea was “art as a healing modality.” That was the origin of “Stage Rage.” One of the original offerings in Spring Projects Phase of 1974  was “Children’s Theater,” in which students wrote their own play, designed portable scenery, and traveled to schools in the area to present their production. For this new project, however, Pat Flynn, head of our Drama Department, collaborated with Ivan Lamourt, Director of our Counselling Center at the time, and, following the Children's Theater model, helped the students, who’d been selected from among the kids in therapy, to produce a play based on their experiences. “Stage Rage” is still being produced each spring. It consists of daily theater exercises with Pat to support the the kids’ ability to create a performance piece, as well as group therapy with one or more of our trained counselors.   

Then, in consultation with the counselors, the students discuss what they want to include about themselves, and what they don't. Details are omitted or adjusted, according to the wishes of each student. The students then book performances at local middle schools, and have a discussion with the audience after each performance.

Watching the kids present their play, you realize what these young kids have suffered in their families or neighborhoods or extended families. You cringe at hearing them tell of the kind of abuse whether psychological, physical or, or even in some cases sexual, that has been visited on them.

I'm always in awe at the courage of these kids who are willing take the risk of acting these things out in front of other people -- especially 500 of their teenage peers.

The key to understanding how the actors get the courage to create and act out sometimes painful scenes from their histories is this: They want to reach out to students younger than themselves, and encourage them to get help sooner rather than later. The actors invariably want to book more schools than the five-week time frame will allow, and are frustrated that they don't have more opportunities to discuss the play with the audience afterwards.


The faculty members who travel with the students when they present the play tell me that the kids in the audience will sometimes blurt out: “That's me!” when they hear a certain actor describe his suffering on the stage. That somehow is enough to encourage our courageous kids to open their lives and their hearts.