A Play Written, Directed and Produced by Students

By Samantha Battle



A teenage girl stood in front of a makeshift mirror and captivated the audience as she

practiced what she was going to say to her father who had been absent for nearly her whole life

and just now wanted to show up and play the father role.




The scene was part of a play called “The Secret Life of Teenagers” that King College Preparatory

High School drama students performed Thursday. In the play they talked about topics

like friendships lost, sex, drugs, body image, broken families, school and fatherless homes. All

the skits in the play were taken from an experience that these students personally went

through.




In the scene with the girl practicing what she was going to say to her father, she explained how

she has been doing just fine without him in her life and how she really doesn't consider him a

father but more as a sperm donor.



Another skit in the play was about anorexia. A skinny, light-skinned black girl stood in front of

an imaginary mirror and on the other side was a heavier dark-skinned girl acting as her

conscience. The girl’s conscience said things that girls who are dealing with anorexia feel, such as

"Why don’t you look like the models in the magazines?" and "Look at how big your thigh’s are!"

Then the real girl faints because she has starved herself and ends up in the hospital. In the end,

her friends show up and tell her that nothing is wrong with her body and she looks fine just the

way she is.



At the end of each skit, there was a challenge that each character faced. The purpose of the skits

were to show and inform others how to deal with these situations and what to do when you see

or know someone who might be going through some of these things.



The idea for the play came from drama classes when students were asked to sit in

a circle and talk about things that happened in their life whether it was good or bad.



“Our teacher was surprised to hear some of our stories because he didn’t think that

we would actually open up as much as we did,” said Christian Dills, a drama

student at King.



The drama teacher, James Zvanut, then decided to have a play about their stories.



"The play is marked by honesty and courage and the students’ participation in this

play is revealing, emotional and occasionally spellbinding," Zvanut said.



The play was put together in five months. The students performed these skits as

improvisations at first and over time, they turned them into scripts and memorized

and rehearsed them.



The students wanted to inform their peers and the parents about what they actually

go through in their life, so they made the decision to showcase these

real-life situations.



"I believe that it is important that parents see this so that they could find out how

their children really feel and some of the things that teenagers go through," Dills

said. "People need to be aware of certain things that teens are faced with so that it

can be prevented."



The play was written and produced entirely by the students. They wanted the play

to be as real as possible and so did the teacher.



"Mr. Zvanut didn’t really have much to say because he felt that everything should

be addressed," Dills said. "He just wanted us to hold out on using profanity."



The play also touched and informed the viewers. As the play was going on, the

audience stayed engaged the whole time.



“I couldn’t take my eyes off of the play," said Taylor Ward, 15, a relative of one of the

actors. "It was very helpful because I personally know some people

who go through some of these things at my school. I didn’t know how to approach

the situation at hand without hurting my friends' feelings and this helped me be able

to help others and myself also if I’m faced with some of these issues".