“Sticks and stones
May break my bones
But words will never hurt me.” (Children’s rhyme)
But words can hurt. And they do. Especially when there is bullying involved.
The play called “Sticks and Stones” deals with bullying at school. We were lucky to host the renowned White Horse Theatre Company at our school. They performed “Sticks and Stones” in front of 200 students from our school.
You can find out more about the play HERE
After a great performance by English speaking actors from England and Australia, we were allowed to ask questions and talk about bullying at school. The conclusion was that the worst thing are the “watchers”. They watch others being bullied without doing anything.
Here is a short interview by Hewan from GKS with Julia, one of the actors:
GKS: Why did you start doing theatre?
Julia: Well, that’s a good question. For me personally the theatre has always been the place I felt happiest. And I was always fascinated by different people, different characters, by the psychology. In theatre you are working with people and learning about people all the time. You have to become very different characters, which I find very exciting.
GKS: What are the reasons for choosing this play?
Julia: Our artistic director, Peter Griffith, actually wrote this play himself. It’s based on his own experiences of bullying when he was at school. And we felt it’s a very relevant topic because it takes place in every school. If you ask around, most people have experienced bullying some time in their lives. I know all four of us [the actors] have, so we felt it was important to talk about this.
GKS: In which countries have you played?
Julia: I have acted in England and Germany, Angus has done a lot of acting in Australia – because he’s Australian – the others have only toured in England so far, so this is their first time in Germany.
GKS: What do you feel when you’re on stage?
Julia: Well, that depends. There are many different factors. Obviously you try to be in the part and feel what the part feels at the moment but every day we’re in a new room with new conditions, you know, the way you have to speak in order to fill the room; the way the audience reacts and how you interact with the audience. And the audience is different every day, so that is what makes this job so exciting.
GKS: Did you have experience in situations like these?
Julia: Yes, all four of us had experiences with being bullied, I myself, when I was 13 or 14. All the other girls in my class were only interested in boys, clothes and going partying and so on. And I was interested in theatre and books and that was not very cool. So basically I didn’t have any friends in school but I got over that through getting to act and so I found my world that made me happy.
GKS: Cool. Thank you very much for the interview.
Julia: Thank you very much.
