Oregon Public Broadcasting

A Portland-based playwright and his small tribe of actors are currently touring Oregon middle schools. The idea is to confront explosive issues like cyber-bullying through theatre. The 400 middle schoolers filing into this gymnasium are the typical audience for this play. Kaiser Permanente and Oregon Children’s Theater sponsored “Texting the Sun” specifically for early teens. The title comes from this scene: Eighth grader, Casper, is explaining to his friend Monica, why he never needs to leave the TV screens, surround sound, and computer monitors in his basement.

Refusing to go outside completely seemed a little over-the-top to 12 year-old George Espinoza. “I kind of thought, man, that’s a dumb decision, because he’s keeping himself from developing as a kid, and meeting new people, and getting sunshine," he said.But the reality of other scenes captivated the kids. Early in the play, Monica argues with her Mom, while she simultaneously sends instant messages to her friend Casper. The male voice is actor Damon Kupper. He’s reading the messages.

Cecily Overman plays Monica’s mom. She said the scene strikes a chord with kids. “At one school, Monica and her mother during that scene – it was very fun to hear a student say to her friend ‘oh, that’s just like me and my mom’," she said.Boys related to that scene, as well. Owen McLafferty,  8th grader at Beaumont Middle School, said, "Just like when I’m in a conversation with someone texting, I’ve almost gotten used to like, if my Dad’s talking, saying ‘oh, yeah sure Dad,’ and I’ll still be texting a message, and I won’t even know what I’m saying ‘yes’ to.” The play is a boy-meets-girl story. The boy, Casper, is obsessed with technology. The girl, Monica, is insecure, especially about her appearance. 


The play’s emotional climax comes when Monica steals Casper’s online identity, to antagonize a girl he met on the internet, named Zoey.

Later in the play, Zoey attempts suicide. Monica spirals downward, too. She battles an eating disorder and runs away from home. Kids say there are some social benefits to online relationships. For instance, Owen McLafferty said there are opportunities online for kids to break out of their cliques.  “You don’t want to be thought of as different in school, and you don’t want to be made fun of for talking to ‘that person.’ But if you chat on-line and stuff, no one will ever know you talked to them. It’s kind of like you can have one identity in school, and another one on-line, and stuff," he said.12 year-old George Espinoza said kids do break out of their cliques, or their shells online, sometimes. But he says when that happens, it’s not always pretty. “Like some people are really shy in class or in school. And then they get on the internet, and they’re just crazy," he said.The play has an upbeat ending, of sorts, but computers – or the kids’ online identities – come out as villains. That might be fitting, considering recent news accounts of cyber-bullying incidents. But Stephanie Cordell, who plays  Monica, said she hopes kids learn they have choices.“It’s not the computer making you do this. It’s not another teacher, or a parent making you do this. You’re the one who controls how you feel. You have the choice to go out and have life, and experience things and maybe be happy, or you have the choice to look at things in a negative way," she said.One school administrator said that in spite of recent stories of cyber-bullying, she’s feeling more comfortable about kids having My Space accounts, or Facebook pages, than a few years ago. Kids say there are rules, like ‘no online friends that we don’t know.’ Still, time spent online is going up. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study, kids are exposed to media up to seven and a half hours a day on average.The heaviest users are middle schoolers, ages 11 to 14.

For more informartion:

Education Theatre - Texting the Sun