Plays of Belonging

Sheree Haughian, a former teacher-librarian with the Dufferin County
Board of Education, is an editor with Gage Educational Publishing and
the author of The Private Journal of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

Although schools set up codes and policies to deal with bullying,
violence, and racism, it seems that these attempts are only moderately
successful. Until kids can actually feel what it’s like to be the
victim, rules and regulations bring about only superficial change. This
three-play collection allows students scripted yet creative
opportunities to assume those other roles.

In “Belonging,” two classmates are sensitized to the feelings of a
gifted poet, Jody, only when they are able to experience the power of
poetry to express emotion. In “Weird Kid,” four classmates accused
of trashing a classroom shift the blame to Babs—the titular
heroine—and then revisit the scenarios that might have caused her
display of violence. Kim, the outsider in “Video Wars,” is literally
an exile; he and his mother escaped to Canada as war refugees. His
experience brings a tragic reality to the war games Canadian teenagers
play for a cheap thrill.

What’s most commendable about these plays—aside from the message
that we all can and must empathize with the situation of others—is the
forthright, truthful way the language and the situations mirror the
social dynamics of youth; these are morality plays that do not preach or
even suggest that solutions to problems are ever easy or
straightforward. Plays of Belonging could underline the intrinsic value
of role-playing in classroom conflict. Schools might also investigate
the possibility of bringing professional productions of the plays to
their neighborhood. Recommended.