Preview in the Montreal Times: Geordie Productions confronts bullying head-on in their 33rd season
Read on Montreal Times’ website: Geordie Productions season preview
***
Geordie Productions opens their 33rd season with two plays touring into schools throughout the province about bullying and the effect it can have on the people who endure it.
Beginning September 23rd, the popular Geordie School Tour will perform at schools, libraries, theatres and community centres across Quebec and parts of Eastern Canada. The tour annually presents more than 200 performances to over 60,000 audience members. This year both productions will tackle an important issue facing many young people today – bullying.
The elementary school show is Derwent is Different by Jamie Norris, directedby Amanda Kellock. Derwent and Ramona have been friends forever, but today she wrote him a note saying they can’t be friends anymore because he is just too weird. In response, Derwent creates a video for her, and in the process reveals that another student has been bullying him for months. The odds are stacked against him, but Derwent’s courage shines in the end, and there is hope that he will indeed be able to break the pattern of violence that he has gotten caught in.
The High School and CEGEP show is a new play by Jesse Stong entitled Shared Account, directed by Dean Patrick Fleming. Loosely based on the tragic story of Amanda Todd, the play challenges teen audiences to critically reflect on bullying. Trying to start her live over after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Aurora changes high schools and moves in with her father in hopes of healing from her vicious experience with online bullying. Finding the past difficult to delete and forced to carefully examine her own complicated feelings, she adamantly attempts to move forward with her life and reconnect with her father.
“I hope so much that these productions provide people who are going through a rough time with a sense that they are not alone and for others to understand that their actions can be brutal to others.” says Artistic Director Dean Patrick Fleming about the two shows.
Tour destinations include Chibougamou, the Lower North Shore, Gaspé, New Brunswick, the Magdalen Islands, the Lac St-Jean/Saguenay region, and the Ottawa/Gatineau region. Limited dates are still available for November and December. The tour will run until April 2014.
Recent Comments