March 7, 2007

The Invisible Girl appears in London

By Erin Isings
eallison@uwo.ca

Alone in the school cloakroom, Ali, 10, bursts into tears. A group of girls she thought were her friends had mocked her clothes and sent her a Valentine with a cruel message.

As often happens when girls bully, some other girls watching this scene did nothing: but they did seem uncomfortable, shifting in their seats.

This scene could happen anywhere, but this time it was on stage at London's Grand Theatre, where The Invisible Girl, a play about girls and bullying, had a three-day run last weekend. The girls watching Ali cry were audience members who came to see the character Ali deal with girl bullies.

Produced by the Carousel Players based in St. Catharines, Ont., the play is making the rounds of southwestern Ontario schools. It tours the Niagara area throughout March.

Photo by G.B. Lawson

Lauren Evans plays Ali in The Invisible Girl.

The play centres on a young girl named Ali, who nominates the unpopular "Fat Delores" to sing the solo in a school performance. Ali is then ostracized by her friends because one of them wanted the singing part. Ali tries to convince Delores to "un-nominate" herself so that Ali's friends will stop making Ali feel invisible.

When Delores turns down the solo spot, Ali realizes that Delores is giving up the part in order to gain Ali's friendship. Ali re-nominates Delores, choosing to do what she feels is right, even though Ali knows this won't win back her former friends.

"I thought it was good to see how it's good to stand up for what you believe in. (Ali) did the things that she believed in, but not what her friends said to do," said Carissa Smith, 11, who came to see the play with her sister Kiera, 8, and their mother, Beth Wilbur-Smith.

Jane Bowley, a high school teacher and member of the Thames Valley District School Board violence prevention committee, brought her daughters Eliza, 11, and Grace, 7, to see the performance.

"It's a good lesson in empathy," said Bowley. "We have some girls in our school who are made to feel invisible by others."

Both mothers said female bullying is a reality in their daughters' schools and had addressed the issue with their daughters before hearing about the play.

Marlies Sudermann, who teaches in the faculty of social science at the University of Western Ontario, said when adults define for kids what bullying is, they can more easily recognize themselves as bullies or victims.

"In all forms of abuse prevention, naming the abuse with terminology and giving victims permission to talk about it in public is really a powerful tool," she said.

Bullying among girls has always occurred, though we haven't always had the language to label certain actions as bullying or abuse in our society, said Sudermann. While female bullying can be physical, the use of social status to threaten social exclusion is used more often by girls than boys. For example, even a girl who says to an adult "I just don't want to play with her today" may be involved in excluding a particular girl.

"I think it can help to set the social tone in the school, if people in authority are making it seem like a legitimate thing to be upset about or complain about," said Sudermann. For example, if a school's code of conduct encourages an inclusive environment, students can recognize and report instances of exclusion.

A teacher's resource guide to address the issues of bullying is one of the resources available online from Carousel Players, the producers of The Invisible Girl. The guide lists exercises teachers can use to elicit discussion about the play's themes, such as treating others with respect, fitting in, friendship and encouraging positive thinking.