9 out of 10 children have experienced bullying either as a victim or a witness.

  Bullying can take many different forms such as Verbal, Physical and Indirect.

  15% of school kids are bullied everyday

   In 2006, 87% of parents report that their child has been bullied in the past 12 months.

  In 2010 it was estimated that almost 2.7 million kids were being bullied.

  In 2010 bullying accounted for 44% of teenage suicides. 

          CELEBRITIES WHO HAVE BEEN BULLIED, AND THEIR STORIES;

      Sandra Bullock

  Being raised by a German mother caused Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock to receive cruel comments from her classmates. As a professional opera singer, Helga Meyer dragged Bullock from their home in Virginia to her performances in Europe, leaving the young girl culturally clueless in her native country. "I'd come back [to school] from Europe and I looked like a clown compared to the cool way the other students looked and dressed. So I got my ass whooped a little bit," Bullock admitted in 2009. "Kids are mean, and the sad thing is that I can still remember the first and last names of every one of those kids who were mean to me!"

          Michael Phelps

  Before he became a record-breaking Olympian with a collection of gold medals to his name, Michael Phelps was a kid with unwieldy limbs, "sticky-out ears," and a lisp that caused him to be teased by his peers. Phelps has openly discussed his "deep hurt" over bullying early in life. He also dealt with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, for which he spent two years on medication. A teacher even told Phelps' mother, "He's not gifted. Your son will never be able to focus on anything." These days though, Phelps' trainer calls him the "motivation machine," explaining, "bad moods, good moods, he channels everything for gain."

              Chris Rock

  Apparently, there was a time when everybody really did hate Chris Rock. The comedian has talked openly about his struggles as the only black student in his New York school, saying, "I got beat up just about every day. I got called n***** every single day. I got kicked and whatever. What happened to me then, today kids come to school with guns and shoot everybody—but I couldn't find a gun back then." Clearly still haunted by the painful words of his youth, Rock turned the experience into comedy with his show Everybody Hates Chris, which actually inspired one of his former teachers to write Rock an apology letter for his less-than-pleasant elementary school days.

          Tiger Woods

  On Tiger Woods' first day of kindergarten in 1981, the future golf stud was tied to a tree and taunted with racial slurs by older schoolboys. While that incident seems to be the only one of such a level of severity, Woods also had to cope with a stuttering problem. "It was very difficult, but I fought through it. I went to a school to try and get over that, and I just would work my tail off. And I would talk to my dog," said Woods on 60 Minutes. Sometimes, we all just need a good listener.

          Winona Ryder

  "I was wearing an old Salvation Army shop boy's suit. As I went to the bathroom I heard people saying, 'Hey, f*****.' They slammed my head into a locker. I fell to the ground and they started to kick the s**t out of me. I had to have stitches. The school kicked me out, not the bullies. Years later, I went to a coffee shop and I ran into one of the girls who'd kicked me, and she said, 'Winona, Winona, can I have your autograph?' And I said, 'Do you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?' And she said, 'Kind of.' And I said, 'That was me. Go f*** yourself.'"

              Christian Bale

  Christian Bale starred in “Empire of the Sun” when he was 13 years old, but instead of an instant entourage, he was instantly hated on in school. Bale says, “It was not a great time. I was a victim of bullying and had other kids kicking and punching me every day. It was an early lesson in how making a film can set you apart. If you don’t want to live with the consequences then don’t make the film. But that didn’t help at the time. I was confused about other people’s reactions to me, both good and bad. It can mess anyone up.” 

          Jessica Alba

  Jessica Alba seems like the nicest person ever, which is probably why she was tortured in school. The actress claims she was shy and awkward and had to be protected by adults: “I was bullied so badly my dad used to have to walk me into school so I didn’t get attacked ... I’d eat my lunch in the nurse’s office so I didn’t have to sit with the other girls.”

          Rihanna

  Gorgeous singer Rihanna has revealed that she suffered from discrimination because of her skin colour all throughout her childhood. Because her skin was lighter in colour than her classmates in Barbados, she was tormented right up until high school. “Having lighter skin wasn’t a problem in my household, but it was when I went to school - which really confused me at first. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school.”

            ‘T.I.E projects 'can be a purposeful and enjoyable part of every school child’s life'

  - Altru Drama

      There are many different types of learners; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic, and t.i.e projects usually look at all three in a fun and imaginative way. They allow the kids to get involved and make a contribution and have a say about pressing issues.

      'Revel in the challenges put to us to help young people learn and remember important messages'

                  - Tiny Giants

      T.i.e projects are not a one way thing, both the company performance and the audience present challenges for one another that they both have to accomplish. The company give the viewers the challenging of re-iterating the message their peice conveyed, and the audience give the company the challenge of having to make it relevant, or the interest is lost.

      'Theatre that would be accessible and entertaining at the same time'

                  - Complicite Theatre Company

      Something that is fun and enjoyable to watch, as well as relatable to the audience in question, these are the two things T.I.E’s most be if they want to create any sort of lasting impact on the children, and I think that our piece delivered this rather concisely.

      ‘It gives young people the chance to develop opinions and make choices'.

                  - Altru Drama

      If the children are presented with a story surrounding a contemporary issue they can begin to draw their own conclusions and opinions on it, which in the long run, will help thought development and there attitude towards things will change also.

      'Ignite the imagination... Challenge the mind'

                  - M6

      In order for children to be excited about something, you need to present them something that allows their imagination to run free, making up all sorts of weird starts and finishes, as well as testing their capability of rational thought. This form of mental challenge will help them develop fortified opinions from a very young age.

      Script Link

  This is a link to the script page we created, and more specifically all the script i uploaded. Enjoy.

ORIGINS OF T.I.E

Theatre in Education started as a separate art form and educational activity in Coventry at the Belgrade Theatre in 1965. A group consisting of actors, teachers and social workers were brought together to create a community outreach team.

The outreach team created a project called, Pow Wow who took a group of children and first introduced them to an actor playing a Cowboy. Later the children were introduced to an actor playing an Indian kept in a cage as a prisoner by the Cowboy. The children were given information about both characters and their opposing views in the situation and given the choice of whether or not to free the Indian. The project had successfully merged theatre and education for the first time.

In 1968 - 1970 more groups started to get established in areas such as Bolton, Leeds, Glasgow, Greenwich and Edinburugh. Nottingham and Peterborough followed the trend in 1973, as well as Lancaster in 1975

T.I.E THEATRE COMPANIES

  --------------- M6 ---------------

  Founded in 1977 and based in Rochdale, the M6 Theatre Company has become one of Britain’s leading theatre companies, as they specialize in creating and delivering dynamic, high quality and relevant productions for young audiences.  In 1997, M6 created one of the first ever bilingual pieces of theatre. Unlike most T.I.E companies that tour around the country to various schools and such, M6 have their own theatre and put on shows there for the public to come and see.

  ---------------- ALTRU GROUP --------------

  Altru Group is a t.i.e theatre company based in Huyton, Merseyside and were founded in 2005. Since first being established they have put on several productions such as; Eyes Open, B is for Bully, Fingers Burnt etc, as well as winning a ‘Morgan Foundation Award’ for ‘Best Business Providing a Social Contribution to the Region’ in 2008.

      “ As a company we have a strong ethos of working with people to help them achieve their creative potential through drama. The company was born out of a desire to use drama as a tool for social and personal change, particularly with children and young people. “

          ----------- TINY GIANTS ----------

  Based in Liverpool and set up in 1999 as a non-profit organisation, Tiny Giants have performed a variety of different performances over the past 12 years, including most recently BU-11-Y, and have performed to around 1200 schools a year. In 2008 Tiny Giants funded the opening and development of one of Liverpool’s most welcomed fringe theatres, The Lantern Theatre.  Tiny Giants offer a range of t.i.e literacy plays, which are derived from classic text that many schools use as a medium to study in English and other lessons. Such productions include; The Snow Queen, Peter Pan, and a special performance of Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ to mark 200 years.

          KIDS SHOW RESEARCH

      SCOOBY - DOO

      Asides from The Simpsons Scooby - Doo is one of the longest running cartoons on television. Making his appearance in 1969, the mystery-solving Great Dane has starred in 310 animated episodes of shows ranging from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! to Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics to The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show. The origin of the pup’s name comes from the Frank Sinatra son ‘Strangers in the Night’ as his name comes from the refrain "Scooby-dooby-doo". Scooby-Doo is the only cartoon canine inspired by a Frank Sinatra lyric.

      Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! Was originally pitched to CBS by Hanna-Barbera, as being a scary cartoon, heavy on haunted houses and monsters, but light on comedy. The four teenagers were the main characters, and their dog merely a supporting role. Mysteries Five or Who's Scared, as it was to be called, worried CBS execuitives, as it would be too frightening for children, bu they still wanted to find a way to make it work. The then head of children's programming at CBS, Fred Silverman, came of with the idea of calling the character Scooby-Doo from listening to Sinatra and said if they made the dog the main character and the show more comical, it would be more enjoyable for the audiences viewing pleasure.

              THE FLINTSTONES

      Running from 1960 to 1966, ‘The Flintstones’ was originally titled ‘The Flagstones’, then changed to ‘The Gladstones’ before settling on the title we all know and love. The script and format of the show was based on the American situation comedies of 1950s and 1960s, and it was rumoured the characters and storyline was based on ‘The Honeymooners’ although these claims were denied.. The first show premiered on September30, 1960 on ABC.

      The concept revolved around two main characters, Fred Flintstone and his wife Wilma, and their best friends, Barney and Betty Rubble. The characters are shown to live in the prehistoric city of Bedrock, where they face problems of contemporary working-class life. Fred and Wilma also have a baby dinosaur (Dino) and a saber-tooth tiger (Baby Puss) which act as the family dog and cat respectively. Other characters included Pebbles (Fred and Wilma’s daughter), Bamm Bamm (Barney and Betty’s adopted son), Ed Flintstone, Edna Hardrock, Pearl Pebbles-Pebbles Slaghoople, Tex Hardrock, Jemima Hardrock, and so on.

      The Flintstones was the first animated series to last for more than two seasons, but The Simpsons beat that record in 1992. The fourth season saw Rubbles being upset over not having children and then adopting Bamm Bamm. Hence, The Flintstones became the first animated series in history to address the issue of infertility.

      Initially aimed at adult audiences, the first two seasons of The Flintstones appeared in black & white, and also had a different theme tune that was called ‘Rise and Shine’. With over 166 episodes, the show ran for six seasons and the final episode aired on April 1, 1966. The series became the first American animated show to depict two people of the opposite sex sleeping in one bed.

      Here is a video of the originally opening sequence; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL_zF_EPK74

      THE SIMPSONS

      In 1987 ‘The Simpsons’ originally started out as shorts featured on the Tracey Ullman Show, before becoming independent and making its own debut as a prime time show on December 17th 1989, where the first episode was ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open fire’ and saw the arrival of the loveable family pet dog ‘Santa’s Little Helper’. The Simpsons have made twenty-four seasons and is the longest running animated show to date. 

    The world renowned character phrase uttered by Homer Simpson when having done something stupid (D’oh!) made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary, as well other catchphrases catching on such as Nelson Munts ‘Ha-Ha’ and Mr. Burns ‘excellent’.

                                                          This is what ‘The Simpsons’ originally looked like when aired on ‘The Tracy Ullman Show’

  This week was the one where we finally worked out what was to be in our showcase, as well as focusing on devising ideas for our end of year show using characterization workshops. On the Monday we spent our time sourcing monologues, duologues and scenes that could be potential candidates for our upcoming showcase on the 27th March. The pieces that I currently had arranged was both a scene and the closing monologue from Neil Labute’s ‘The Shape of Things’, another monologue which isn’t from a play so highly unlikely it will be chosen, three scenes from ‘The Pillowman’ though we would only do one of them, one of two scenes ‘Punk Rock’ and when the boys discover they’ve all been dumped in Mark Ravenhill’s ‘Totally Over You’.  The majority of these would not be chosen as you are only allowed to do only one scene from any one play, so, for example, I couldn’t do two of ‘The Pillowman’ scenes as it doesn’t follow that rule. The ones that I was favouring at the moment personally was ‘The Pillowman’, ‘The Shape of Things’ monologue and the second Punk Rock scene and sure enough they were picked along with the Mark Ravenhill scene. For the Tuesday and Wednesday I started working these scenes, including all ‘The Pillowman’ ones as we hadn’t quite come to a conclusive decision on which one we were going to have in the showcase. I liked the selection I had as they were all very different characters, with different status’ and different outlooks and such, which meant I would have to really think about each one and show a different side to my capability. Being it was only the first week I was still on book for Totally Over You and Punk Rock as I hadn’t had them as long as I had had the other two choices. To end the week we did a characterization workshop, lead by Sophie Bonds and Leah Shine, in this workshop we were presented with a piece of paper that had three things on it; our characters name, a trait of that character and a drug, and so my sheet said Vinnie, predator and Viagra. I was told by Leah before it begun that she was looking forward to what I may create as the two girls had deliberately given me a rather challenging set, and so was expecting this type of character or similar. My first impression on the name alone, was that he was rather old, for the name ‘Vinnie’ to me doesn’t sound like the name of someone in the 21st century but a bit more dated and possibly within the 80s or something, so doing the math he would be in his 20s/30s. Also he has quite a street-like, urban, toughness about it, and sounds like someone who knows his area and the sort of characters that hang around it.  As for predator and Viagra, they were rather self-explanatory. Once we had our pieces of paper we were told to walk around the room and start bringing this character to life based on the things written on the paper given to us. Knowing the basic aim of the girls workshop and that everyone was the personification of an illegal substance of some sort, I started trying to work out who had what due to their mannerisms they were creating. It was also easy to distinguish what everyone had got due to their name, as it was very similar to the title of the substance, for example, Toby Redpath was called ‘Henry’ and his drug was heroin. We then proceeded to play different games together and so were introduced to the other characters more formally rather than just seeing them passing us when walking. We played games such as musical chairs, spin the bottle and as well as just having a genuine disco. I knew being given such a strange and un-friendly character, that this workshop would be a challenge, but I didn’t know what happened would be the outcome. Today really showed me how if you truly embody a character, and think and breathe there very essence what might become. I am both proud of what I accomplished but initially coming out of the whole experience I felt dirty and grotesque, and needed to be safe in my mind that everyone who was involved that I hadn’t done anything horrible or put them in a difficult position. I am glad for my company’s professionalism as well as being there for there fellow peers when in a difficult place. Sophie and Leah could clearly see I was effected by the first half of the workshop, and so let me sit out as a spectator for the next part. The second half of the workshop had Jasmine’s character, who was called Jenny, hosting a house party where all these other characters had been invited too. At first it seemed happy and jolly and everyone was just doing there own thing and enjoying the place. Suddenly Jenny started getting paranoid and subconscious, breaking down and screaming at everyone to get out. Everyone then laid down and said who they were and what substance they were. The shock was that Jenny was infact everything, which explained her irradic behaviour at the end and as well as the fact that everyone else was in her head, and the party was merely a crack den. It was clear Leah and Sophie had research and knew the effects of the drugs which is what made this workshop so effective, and it really sent a message of the dangers and risks you face when taking them. From this workshop ideas are flowing, and people are really interesting in incorporating this somewhere into the peice, whether that be a peice about drugs, or just using the methods and the characters we created. The second workshop we did, also led by Sophie and Leah, was more based around blind dates and murder mysteries. Using the same characters, except for me, we were set up on blind dates. Today the girls wanted to see a boy personify the result of taking everything, and so asked me if I could do that today instead of Vinnie. This was more for us to get a further understanding of the other characters and to see how the actor had further developed them since yesterday. There was then an incorporation of murder mystery and police questioning involved, as the lady in charge of said dating agency was murdered by one of the candidates that night, and so people were being questioned. My character was one of the detectives and so was doing the questioning, which threw off people as they original thought it was me due to the way I conducted myself in the dating. I really liked this idea, and would really like to do a murder mystery of some sort, so the workshop sparked more ideas as to what could possibly happen.

STRENGTHS

- Commitment; My commitment to Sophie’s and Leah’s workshop was really strong, and as a result of this I was able to go to a very deep place with the character I had created.

- Reading; I am good at bringing the lines off the page and breathing life into them, despite still having script In hand.

WEAKNESSES

- Too involved; Though the characterization was good, I wonder if I pushed myself too far and if I had of slowed down abit may have been able to partake in the second part of the warm up.

- Lines; I’ve had the scenes for a while and should be a lot more familiar with the text than I actually am.

PLAN OF ACTION