FARMINGTON – In a nondescript second-floor classroom at Mt. Blue High School on Wednesday, 10 students sat in a circle discussing issues including divorce, harassment, sexual preference and personal identity.
Their discussion did not occur in health class or in a guidance session, but rather as an integral part of rehearsing for a play that will be performed nine times next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday by a high school acting troupe called Theater for Peace.
The play is called “In Search of Me” and was written by the students and Director Jeri Pitcher in a series of improvisational rehearsals earlier this fall to address issues faced by students in both high school and in middle school, and to explore approaches to problem-solving.
The piece will be performed for students at the Jay and Livermore Falls middle schools next Wednesday and Thursday, and will be followed by a question-and-answer session during which the students hope to discuss in more depth issues touched on in the 20-minute production.
Theater for Peace is an interactive theater group open to all interested high school students organized by Farmington’s Foothills Arts Center. According to Foothills Executive Director Anne Geller, the program provides a venue for students to combine an interest in drama with community service, as their performances are designed to help students explore difficult issues they, or others in their peer group, have faced.
According to Mt. Blue High School senior Naomi Caywood, who will appear in next week’s production, “In Search of Me” is “about identity how do you find who you are, what influences your identity.”
Freshman Jenny Baxter said she hopes the middle school students, for whom the piece was primarily written, will take away “a whole bunch of things not to look for your identity in.” Caywood said she hopes the piece will give “a new drive to try to find your identity.”
In addition to eight productions at the Jay and Livermore Falls middle schools, the play will be performed for interested community members at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, at the Temple Stream Theater in Temple.
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