FHS APPLIED THEATRE
The Beginnings
June 2010
In June of 2010, the applied theatre students of Franklin High School, made a decision to use theatre as a tool to explore the issue of bullying in their school community. After creating a survey and sending it out to over 1000 high school students; the young people read their responses, conducted follow-up interviews, did national research, spoke with the father of a bullycide victim and mental health professionals; before writing their educational exploration into bullying. Clear in their intent that they wanted to help reach their peers by creating an opportunity to dialogue and promote change from the ground up, the students spent the year writing and then performing this piece across the state. "We are actors. We are realists. But really, we’re just a bunch of kids who really care trying to reach those who don’t." (Candice Mazon, student 2010 participant)
Awards and Recognition
2011-2012
After Shadows initial performance for staff and administration in February 2011, people began reaching out to the young people involved asking their feedback and advice on anti-bullying. As part of that work, the young people worked on creating an anti-bullying curriculum based on theatre and drama activities that is now a full length part of the freshmen high school academic program. In addition, they received a letter from Governor Christie, a commendation from the Mayor of Franklin Township, the 2011 Golden Bell Award for Leadership and Innovation in combatting bullying, a 2012 Emmy Nomination for the Classroom Close-up piece shown here and an invitation to perform at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Taking the Message Abroad
2012 - 2013
Currently, as of April 2013, Shadows has reached close to 9000 people and is booked for the 2013-2014 school year. We are taking additional bookings for Fall 2013. In addition, we are excited about our partnerships with Tyler Clementi Foundation (www.tylerclementi.org), the National School Climate Organization (www.schoolclimate.org), the Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth Program (http://sourcesofstrength.org) along with others. We are trying to raise funds to travel to Scotland to spread the message globally. If you are interested in helping us with that project, please let us know on our CONTACT PAGE. Thank you!
Here is a glimpse of our incredible performance from Scotland at the Edinborough Fringe Festival!
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