"The Shape of a Girl" Play at Mascoma High School Addresses Bullying Issues

Opening the school year this past August, Superintendant, John Moses asked teachers to address bullying issues in the curriculum. On March 28th, Experiencing the Arts sponsored an all school assembly at Mascoma Valley Regional High School of the critically acclaimed play "The Shape of a Girl." Experiencing the Arts Director, Christopher Morse explained, "I was very pleased to get the play for Mascoma. I had expressed interest in the play by Health Teacher, Catherine Stewart and from what I read in the study guide, the story sounded exactly like what the Superintendant hoped we would cover when he spoke at the beginning of the school year. The Green Thumb Theatre for Young People is from British Colombia. Their production of Joan MacLeod's one woman play came to Mascoma through a series of cooperations. Through the State Council on the Arts Artlinks program, we are partners with Lebanon Opera House. The play was on their roster for their Youth Education Series and they were kind enough to allow us to sponsor an additional performance while it was in the area."

The play was intense, depicting a girl named Braidie struggling over what to do about her friend Adrian's destructive bullying of a girl named Sophie. The play was inspired by the real-life murder in 1997 of the 14-year-old Reena Virk by two high school girls in Vancouver. The play inspired the New York Times to write:
"Joan MacLeod's sober and gripping one-woman show '"The Shape of a Girl,'" adds to the growing consensus in popular culture that ''sugar-and-spice and everything nice'' might have been overstating the case."

"Jennifer Paterson is brilliant in the role, winning our sympathies and communicating with painstaking articulation the weakness of being unable to stop something that you know is wrong."

"Braidie is just your average kid. She's a little melodramatic, maybe, and a handful for her mother, but nothing too out of the ordinary. So when she sees her friends cruelly hazing a girl at school, she does what most kids would do -- absolutely nothing."

"Through Braidie's eyes, the audience sees the plight of Sophie, an innocent, awkward girl who is bullied by her classmates. She is ignored, mocked and referred to as a thing instead of a person. Braidie sympathizes with Sophie, but also seems to resent her inability to stick up for herself."

After seeing the play, fourteen Experiencing the Arts students completed a questionnaire about the play. Although a majority of the Experiencing the Arts students felt the story accurately reflected their experience with bullying, more than half said either they had never been bullied themselves or that it was uncommon at Mascoma. Carrie Bladyka said, "I don't think that bullying is a huge issue in our school. Although people pick on each other and there's not allot of respect for other people's opinions, people don't go and beat people up for it." Tiffany Kennedy added, "There are many different kinds of bullying. This story does reflect an experience of bullying that I am aware of, but I have never been bullied like that." Sierra Stark felt the play did cover bullying accurately, "A lot of girls want to fit into a cool group and would do anything to be popular. With Bradie's (the main character's) situation, she had known Adrian (the bully) for a long time and didn't want to lose her as a friend even though she was mean."

All the Experiencing the Arts students found it plausible that a student in Bradie's situation would be able to speak up against a situation of bullying. Nicole Bisbee pointed out, "When Sophie (the girl who they had been bullying) began to act as if she hated herself, it convinced Bradie to speak up against Adrian." Kate Johnson felt Bradie's reporting the bullying was plausible, "I think Bradie decided to report it because she realized that she was harming Sophie even though she wasn't doing the bullying. Bradie realized how serious the bullying was when she found herself obsessing over (the news story of) the killing in Victoria Falls."

There was a variety of opinions about what might happen next after Bradie reported Adrian's bullying. One student felt Adrian would beat Bradie up. Three students felt the victim might commit suicide. Two felt Adrian might ultimately kill Sophie. Six students felt things would resolve themselves with Adrian getting in trouble and help being offered to Sophie. One student felt that after "getting pumped up on heavy metal music" Sophie would seek her revenge!

Ten of the fourteen students reporting felt that Bradie shared in the guilt for being silent about the prolonged bullying. Two students felt that it was understandable to remain silent because she was scared. Two students felt that it is different to keep silent than to be a participant in the bullying, "because it is hard to go against your friends." All the students reporting felt that the bystanders could have helped prevent Adrian's bullying. Suggestions primarily involved standing up to Adrian, however, many students advocated reporting the situation to adults.

None of the Experiencing the Arts students reported having ever missed school because they felt badly about things happening with other students. Most of the students felt Mascoma has a good system in place for dealing with issues like this. When asked who they would go to if there was a similar bullying issue at Mascoma, students named the Principal, Vice Principal, Resource Officer, Guidance, or "a teacher that they trusted," however, two students felt they would deal with the situation with the help of other students.

There were a variety of responses when asked how they would move ahead from conflicts with their peers: one student suggested intimidation, one suggested fighting, several suggested not letting conflicts get to you or try making a joke out of the conflict to show "that I don't care," two students pointed to time as the great healer, many felt that talking things out works, "be a problem solver," suggested Matt Tibbets.