Makeshift Media Group
A Sky Painted Brown invites the audience to witness the high school hell of bullying victim Camille St. Vincent.
“Bullying affects whole communities,” says Jan Levine Thal, artistic director of the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre, which is producing the play in cooperation with StageQ. The collaboratively written play premieres this month at the Bartell Theatre.
A Sky Painted Brown follows St. Vincent (Emily Morrison-Weeks), her boyfriend, Charlie Rogers (Ashton Lareau), and his crew of friends, who belittle Camille for not being good enough for Charlie. Camille is taunted on social media, her picture is photoshopped onto the body of a dog, and, eventually, she is physically attacked. The play explores the disconnect between victims and support systems, showing what the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre calls in a news release “well-meaning but misguided responses” from Camille’s friends, parents and teachers.
“Some teachers and parents miss the extent and intensity of the harassment and feel helpless in face of destructive behaviors,” Levine Thal says. And when adults lack clear strategies for helping bullied children, victims can be isolated, potentially leading to depression, anxiety and suicide. “For a victim to become a survivor she or he needs allies. But knowing who and how to ask for help is not always easy,” she adds.
The play draws upon the real-life bullying experiences of seven local playwrights and synthesizes them into a fictionalized one-hour play, aiming to use Camille’s high school as a microcosm for society’s bullying problem, which sometimes extends into adult workplaces.
Director Naomi Bielefeldt first urged the production company to produce a play on bullying after attending the group’s annual fundraiser. The members agreed it was a topic worth examining and put out an open call for playwrights. Bielefeldt and Levine Thal steered a seven-person writing team, which also included Nancy Craig, Clarice LaFayette, Donnovan Moen (the company’s first male playwright), Gail Sterkel and Morrison-Weeks.
Staged with a cast of women and men of varying ages, races, religions and sexual identities, A Sky Painted Brown strives to leave no one out. The company will also host talkbacks after each performance and has developed an online forum where people can write, share and publish their own experiences as bullying survivors or perpetrators.
Levine Thal says the company is eager to further the community dialogue around bullying using multiple media. A new recording of country singer Mark Wills’ anti-bullying song “Don’t Laugh At Me” was specifically produced for A Sky Painted Brown, and the play will also showcase local musician Joey Broyles performing his song “Freak.” The playwrights have also created Facebook profiles for the characters in A Sky Painted Brown where they interact with each other, providing a cyber-glimpse into the fragile and multidimensional world within the play.
An excerpt from a poem on character Amy Brown’s Facebook page reveals insights into the character’s response to bullying:
And I would just close my eyes but I’ve been hearing some things
Some things I can’t un-hear like the laugh that fills the hallway with every corner I turn never knowing if it’s for me but my ears know and tiny needles prick my neck in waves cause I wish I took up less space.
A Sky Painted Brown runs July 24 through Aug. 1 at the Bartell Theatre.
