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Tell UsWhidbey Children’s Theatre
The Whidbey Children’s Theatre received one of the first grants from the Whidbey Giving Circle to produce a play that would create conversations about the lives of LGBTQ youth on the Island. Sue Averett, from the Theatre, talks about how they did just that.
“Last summer we staged “The Wresting Season”, a play dealing with the issues of homophobia, stereotypes, sexual aggression and hate crimes among youth. Nine teens were cast and there were four performances at the Whidbey Children’s Theatre. After each performance the director, Deana Duncan, led a discussion with audience members. Listening to our community and the young actors discuss issues like date rape, lying, the power of gossip, the difficulty of coming out in a small community and the harassment that can happen was stunning. The members of the cast came away from this experience with new awareness of the role they can play in creating change. All of them reported learning something important about LGBTQ issues that they would take with them as they started the new school year.
Although the play is a metaphor for the conflicts, pressures, betrayals and complex friendships experienced by most teenagers, it still takes place on a wrestling mat. Before production, we took the entire cast to “Wrestling Camp” at the local high school and realized immediately that we were coming to the process of wrestling with many pre-conceived, and wrong, ideas. We were judging the wrestling world in the same way the characters in the play were being judged by their school and community. It was a perfect mirror to our play and jump started our work. “
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