Asked to submit a monologue about an issue that concerned her, 15-year-old Emily White wrote about society’s contradictory reactions to teenaged girls and boys having sex.
She wanted to give girls being “slut shamed” a voice.
“What I see a lot in my classroom is words like slut, whore and skank being thrown around loosely,” said White, a Grade 9 student at Prince of Wales Mini School. “Rape jokes are very prominent… and just a general sort of discrimination against women who choose to do what they want with their body in a more sexual way and how they’re being insulted because of this, meanwhile boys are being congratulated.”
In the new play Dream Catchers, White plays Michelle who is ridiculed for having sex with a character named Edward.
The play, which runs April 30 to May 3 at the Roundhouse Community Centre, follows nine teenagers trying to overcome challenges and “catch their dreams” in the lead up to high school graduation.
Vancouver teens in the Roundhouse Youth Theatre Action Group Project wrote the storylines in collaboration with Some Assembly Theatre Company.
Dream Catchers includes a girl who’s thinking about cutting herself and a valedictorian who’s anxious about not knowing what she wants to do after high school.
Valerie Methot co-founded the professional theatre company Some Assembly in 2002 to produce new plays in collaboration with youth and other community members.
“Teenagers have such a tough time in the teenage years and it’s really important that what they’re going through, that they express it and that they’re heard so that they can become leaders for our future,” said Methot, who also directs Dream Catchers.
White has participated in the Roundhouse youth group that works with Some Assembly for three years.
“When I came into this project I was 12 and I really liked acting but I didn’t do it very often because I was nervous to be up on stage and I was very quiet,” she said. “I’ve personally become much more comfortable in my own skin over the past three years.”
Theatre-goers will see what happens when Edward snaps a photo of Michelle’s bra, posts it on Facebook and brags about having sex with her, resulting in Michelle becoming a subject of scorn.
Michelle’s mother gives her a few feminist texts and the knowledge she’s not alone. “Through this she [does] eventually stand up to Edward and calls him out on all of his actions,” White said. “And through this, she also becomes more confident in herself.”
Methot notes sexual education sessions in schools typically teach students how not to get pregnant “and basically not to have sex at all.”
Dream Catchers accepts adolescents will have sex and emphasizes the importance of safe sex and the potential emotional consequences of engaging in sexual activity.
“This project is a lot about peer-to-peer education because the plays are written by youth, they are for youth and the youth in the audience actually listen,” Methot said.
Talkback sessions are scheduled after each performance and clinicians will be on hand for anyone who needs extra support.
Teenage angst may riddle productions by Some Assembly and the Roundhouse youth group, but in a good way, Methot says.
“I’ve had the opportunity to hear from ‘the cool kids’ in high school who say that these plays are not what they expected,” she said. “They’re not amateur and they’re not your typical after-school special cheesy kind of play that are written by adults.”
Admission is free. For more information, see someassembly.ca.
