Gift books make shopping easy
November 3, 2011"The Zeitgeist Chronicles" (New Orleans)
November 7, 2011
So often, post-mortem judgment is an assessment of what one left behind.
In this case of a 9-year-old boy who killed himself, the legacy is a biting critique of childhood bullying delivered through the guise of an enlightening exercise pointed at the conscious-lacking fourth graders who pushed Johnny too far.
Actors with Nicholls Players will regress in their ages, learn the lingo they once forgot and play the part of Johnny’s catalysts who are, at the behest of guidance counselors, acting out a play Johnny bequeathed his classmates in lieu of a note.
“It’s very dark, but it’s also a very funny play at the same time,” Director Daniel Ruiz said. “There is a lot of really heartwarming, tender moments and some really strange moments, but it has a very strong message exposing people to what really goes on in schools and a little understanding about those who are bullied, especially those who go to the resort of killing themselves because they don’t have another option.”
“The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide,” opens at 7:30 on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 104 Beauregard Hall on the Nicholls State University campus. It will show again at the same time on Friday, Nov. 11, and begins at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12.
Sean Graney, artistic director of the Chicago Hypocrites, wrote the play in 2004 after reading about a child’s suicide in a news story. “Seven years later, the problems are still very much there,” said Ruiz, artistic director of the Nicholls Players.
The script is ripe for literary analysis. The actions are a commentary on the seemingly whimsical actions that have the power to drive a child to action, a few digs directed at the fifth graders embedded within for comic relief, and the final scene delivers Johnny’s jarring message in unpredictable fashion.
“We’re doing our best to create that world and that environment in getting the actors to play children,” Ruiz said. “But at the same time, the situation is so dire, the message is so adult that there is a blur between what is child like and what is adult.”
Chad Durocher, an NSU freshman, plays the role of Johnny in his first collegiate action. A 2011 graduate of Thibodaux High School, Durocher said it is the most complex part he’s played.
“I’m thinking that [parents are] going to realize when their kids come home and say things like, ‘Mom, I’m getting picked on,’ or ‘Dad, someone’s bullying me,’ they’re not just going to think, ‘Oh, boys will be boys,'” Durocher said. “Maybe they will think, ‘It’s not like it was whenever we were kids. It’s getting out of hand.'”
For $5 per ticket, or more accurately, a Bully Awareness Week ribbon that serves as the proxy, the audience will be guided past the protesting public and a prayer group into the classroom, where they will experience the play as a child’s parent or faculty member attending the assembly.
“The audience is going to be immediately immersed from the moment they walk up to the courtyard,” Ruiz said. “You aren’t just a passive audience member going to sit in the theater; you’re actually an active member of this world that we’ve created.”
Sally (Haley Trotter), far left, and Brenda (Cheyenne Miller) torment Rachel (Paige Dupre) during a rehearsal for “The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide” at Nicholls State.
