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Friday, September 07, 2018
How Heathers: High School Edition is helping difficult discourse on teen issues in Johnson County, Kansas (and how it can help you, too).
Breaking Character: The importance of having discussions about mental health, violence, and bullying in our community and communities around the United States became clear when three students in Johnson County, Kansas took their own lives in January of 2018. In the previous year, eight Johnson County teens did the same. This is a subject that is very difficult to discuss between local students and adults alike.
9 comments:
Mirah K
said...
This article discusses one high school’s attempt to advocate better mental health in teenagers by putting on the show, Heathers. With issues like mental health and suicide, it can be very difficult to portray them on stage without romanticizing or making light of them. For example, the show Thirteen Reasons Why came under attack for doing just that; it did not handle the issues well and even sent the message that suicide is the only way to get people to listen to you. What this high school is doing, however, seems to be a little more promising. Putting on a comedic musical about the struggles of high school seems a little risky to me, only because I don’t really believe that these issues should be laughed about but, by acknowledging the content of the show and having discussions about it, I believe that Heathers can be done well and hopefully have a positive effect on the target audience.
I know the basics of Heathers and have heard a few of the songs, but not the details of the show. I think it theater is a really good way to open up these discussions especially with teenagers. What I appreciate the most is how the school took it a step further than just producing the show, they brought in resources within the school, and outreached to the community. I think this is the best way to go about these hard topics, by inviting more people in, and sharing what you learn. I hope other schools look at the positive of this, and see that just because a show includes topics such as violence does not mean it should not be done. It means it needs to be done in a different way. It is becoming more and more common for main stream media to include mental health topics, but that doesn't always lead to the conversations and discussions, but going theater, there is no way to avoid the conversation in the best of way possible.
I love Heathers the Musical, but I really don't agree with the message of this article. My freshman year, I lost one of my very good friends to suicide. That year, Scotch and Soda was strongly considering doing Heathers, but decided against it due to the two student deaths that had occurred. I really cannot imagine seeing Heathers with those deaths so fresh in my mind, and even seeing it when they did Heathers the following year for Spring Carnival was very difficult. I do not think that Heathers is a bad or hurtful show, but it handles teen suicide and violence in a very offhanded manner. It gets a bit heavier towards the end of the show, but for the first 75% of the show, suicide is sort of portrayed as a fad. Again, it gets more serious at the end, but it's hard to make it to the end. That being said, I think Heathers is an exceptionally well written show, and I am very glad that it helped the students at this school deal with their losses, but I cannot imagine Heathers being able to help me in that way.
I have very mixed feelings about “Heathers the Musical”. On one hand, I think it’s a very good piece of art, on the other, it’s very intense and can glamorize murder. I’m always in a constant debate on whether or not high school is a place to present these ideas. While I think that most people would be mature enough to handle the show, there may be others who would only see the comedy or make fun of the central ideas. Personally, I’d love to reach a point where “Heathers” would be a common high school show. It absolutely has the power to help people deal with mental illness, tragedy, and just plain old high school struggle. This year, quite a few schools in my are performed “Cabaret”, which I’m incredibly excited to see here at Carnegie, to pull focus on issues that Atlanta was struggling with this year. They were incredibly well done and brought to light the seriousness of hate and holocaust. However, the people who really needed to see it were not interested and it’s mature content made it less accessible to young audiences. There’s a time and place for every show, and high school has more limits than most.
I really appreciate the thought behind this high school's intent to create more conversations about bullying and mental illness, but I do not think that Heather the Musical is going to portray the image they are trying to present. I think that many theatre departments have attempted to bring light to these issues in the past, but I do not think that Heathers is capable of doing so in a safe and healthy way. I believe shows like Next to Normal do a great job at presenting difficult issues while handling them sensitively at the same time. Heather, however, pushes the issue of the "high school experience" by glamorizing a love formed over negativity, that leads to multiple "justified" deaths. Heathers attempts to bring light to the issues students face in high school, by presenting them in an overly dramatic way, instead of handling the issues with care. I believe this musical was attempting to connect with students by not making the musical too sensitive, but I think it would have done a better job by just making it realistic. By making the plot so overly dramatic, Heathers works as a great show, but not a great message about bullying and mental illness. It shows that if you're being bullied maybe you can just kill your bullies, and if you're depressed maybe you'll fall in love with someone else who's depressed and together you can blow up the school! I think this high school could do a really great job at creating a conversation about these important issues, but I'm not sure that Heathers is the way to go to do so.
I always appreciated that my high school allowed us to do shows that most other schools would not have allowed. My junior year we did Spring Awakening and there was a lot of push back because there is teen suicide in that show, and teen pregnancy and abortion. The director of my program stood by his choice and fought for it because these were things that we were dealing with in high school and the people in the show were meant to be high school aged. I don't think for people to learn and be positively influenced by art it has to be happy or even positive art. I think just by presenting the situations to people who are young, and allowing them to think about it without feeling shame we are creating better world where young people help themselves out of negative situations. I am glad the school is doing this because nothing bad ever comes from listening more to each other or other points of view.
The idea of a ‘teen edition’ of a show seemed very very dumb to me for the longest time. I figured that if a high school wanted to do a show, they should do it the right way. But now I’m starting to get a perspective on why teen editions exist and what their function is. It’s essentially a compromise. The high school theatre department wants to do a show that is relevant and addresses real issue, and the administration wants them to do South Pacific for the 6th time in 10 years. So they meet in the middle with a teen edition. The language is cleaner and things are a little more buttoned up, but in the end the core issue is still there. In this case with Heathers, a lot of what was taken out in the teen edition is language and sexual references (goodbye song about blue balls). But the important parts, the conversation starters, are all there. And with a really robust educational component like this school had, Heathers has the potential to really make people aware of underlying problems teenagers face.
I think it's kind of ridiculous that they censor the productions allowed to be shown, just because parents might have a bad reaction. Often times, the "explicit" content is stuff the kids have seen in their own lives. If a student can't handle a production, or if the content is something they are not comfortable with, then 9 times out of 10 they will not go to see the performance. While I do not necessarily think that Heathers was the right choice for this high school to deal with the issues they were all going through, I can say with total certainty that sometimes it is entirely worth it for students to be able to work on or see things that push the boundaries of what is appropriate. My freshman year of high school I was the lighting designer for a show called "Dog Sees God" which is essentially the story of Charlie Brown as a teenager. the show was so inappropriate that we were not allowed to do it on campus. It was a shock to be a part of, but the themes presented in the show about teen suicide, homophobia, and bullying were extremely relevant to my high school. Heathers isn't necessarily the right show, as many people before me have discussed, but I do think that high schools need to allow their students to perform shows that they want to do, and allow them to talk about what's important to them.
So, Johnson County is near Lawrence Kansas. So a lot of my friends from The University of Kansas were fed from Johnson County schools. I know a lot of the students who attended JOCO struggled with their time in high school. I think its great that this school is going after if the "Heathers" and tackling the issues this show presents. I will admit that the film satirizes the high school politics that would drive young students to take their own lives, but if this theatrical production gets the topic on the table I don't mind. When you're in high school everything seems like such a huge deal, and its hard to prove to kids that their time in high school is not the end all be all of their lives. Once you leave high school you talk to like three people and then no one else matters. So pleased this theatre put on "Heathers".
9 comments:
This article discusses one high school’s attempt to advocate better mental health in teenagers by putting on the show, Heathers. With issues like mental health and suicide, it can be very difficult to portray them on stage without romanticizing or making light of them. For example, the show Thirteen Reasons Why came under attack for doing just that; it did not handle the issues well and even sent the message that suicide is the only way to get people to listen to you. What this high school is doing, however, seems to be a little more promising. Putting on a comedic musical about the struggles of high school seems a little risky to me, only because I don’t really believe that these issues should be laughed about but, by acknowledging the content of the show and having discussions about it, I believe that Heathers can be done well and hopefully have a positive effect on the target audience.
I know the basics of Heathers and have heard a few of the songs, but not the details of the show. I think it theater is a really good way to open up these discussions especially with teenagers. What I appreciate the most is how the school took it a step further than just producing the show, they brought in resources within the school, and outreached to the community. I think this is the best way to go about these hard topics, by inviting more people in, and sharing what you learn. I hope other schools look at the positive of this, and see that just because a show includes topics such as violence does not mean it should not be done. It means it needs to be done in a different way. It is becoming more and more common for main stream media to include mental health topics, but that doesn't always lead to the conversations and discussions, but going theater, there is no way to avoid the conversation in the best of way possible.
I love Heathers the Musical, but I really don't agree with the message of this article. My freshman year, I lost one of my very good friends to suicide. That year, Scotch and Soda was strongly considering doing Heathers, but decided against it due to the two student deaths that had occurred. I really cannot imagine seeing Heathers with those deaths so fresh in my mind, and even seeing it when they did Heathers the following year for Spring Carnival was very difficult. I do not think that Heathers is a bad or hurtful show, but it handles teen suicide and violence in a very offhanded manner. It gets a bit heavier towards the end of the show, but for the first 75% of the show, suicide is sort of portrayed as a fad. Again, it gets more serious at the end, but it's hard to make it to the end. That being said, I think Heathers is an exceptionally well written show, and I am very glad that it helped the students at this school deal with their losses, but I cannot imagine Heathers being able to help me in that way.
I have very mixed feelings about “Heathers the Musical”. On one hand, I think it’s a very good piece of art, on the other, it’s very intense and can glamorize murder. I’m always in a constant debate on whether or not high school is a place to present these ideas. While I think that most people would be mature enough to handle the show, there may be others who would only see the comedy or make fun of the central ideas. Personally, I’d love to reach a point where “Heathers” would be a common high school show. It absolutely has the power to help people deal with mental illness, tragedy, and just plain old high school struggle. This year, quite a few schools in my are performed “Cabaret”, which I’m incredibly excited to see here at Carnegie, to pull focus on issues that Atlanta was struggling with this year. They were incredibly well done and brought to light the seriousness of hate and holocaust. However, the people who really needed to see it were not interested and it’s mature content made it less accessible to young audiences. There’s a time and place for every show, and high school has more limits than most.
I really appreciate the thought behind this high school's intent to create more conversations about bullying and mental illness, but I do not think that Heather the Musical is going to portray the image they are trying to present. I think that many theatre departments have attempted to bring light to these issues in the past, but I do not think that Heathers is capable of doing so in a safe and healthy way. I believe shows like Next to Normal do a great job at presenting difficult issues while handling them sensitively at the same time. Heather, however, pushes the issue of the "high school experience" by glamorizing a love formed over negativity, that leads to multiple "justified" deaths. Heathers attempts to bring light to the issues students face in high school, by presenting them in an overly dramatic way, instead of handling the issues with care. I believe this musical was attempting to connect with students by not making the musical too sensitive, but I think it would have done a better job by just making it realistic. By making the plot so overly dramatic, Heathers works as a great show, but not a great message about bullying and mental illness. It shows that if you're being bullied maybe you can just kill your bullies, and if you're depressed maybe you'll fall in love with someone else who's depressed and together you can blow up the school! I think this high school could do a really great job at creating a conversation about these important issues, but I'm not sure that Heathers is the way to go to do so.
I always appreciated that my high school allowed us to do shows that most other schools would not have allowed. My junior year we did Spring Awakening and there was a lot of push back because there is teen suicide in that show, and teen pregnancy and abortion. The director of my program stood by his choice and fought for it because these were things that we were dealing with in high school and the people in the show were meant to be high school aged. I don't think for people to learn and be positively influenced by art it has to be happy or even positive art. I think just by presenting the situations to people who are young, and allowing them to think about it without feeling shame we are creating better world where young people help themselves out of negative situations. I am glad the school is doing this because nothing bad ever comes from listening more to each other or other points of view.
The idea of a ‘teen edition’ of a show seemed very very dumb to me for the longest time. I figured that if a high school wanted to do a show, they should do it the right way. But now I’m starting to get a perspective on why teen editions exist and what their function is. It’s essentially a compromise. The high school theatre department wants to do a show that is relevant and addresses real issue, and the administration wants them to do South Pacific for the 6th time in 10 years. So they meet in the middle with a teen edition. The language is cleaner and things are a little more buttoned up, but in the end the core issue is still there. In this case with Heathers, a lot of what was taken out in the teen edition is language and sexual references (goodbye song about blue balls). But the important parts, the conversation starters, are all there. And with a really robust educational component like this school had, Heathers has the potential to really make people aware of underlying problems teenagers face.
I think it's kind of ridiculous that they censor the productions allowed to be shown, just because parents might have a bad reaction. Often times, the "explicit" content is stuff the kids have seen in their own lives. If a student can't handle a production, or if the content is something they are not comfortable with, then 9 times out of 10 they will not go to see the performance. While I do not necessarily think that Heathers was the right choice for this high school to deal with the issues they were all going through, I can say with total certainty that sometimes it is entirely worth it for students to be able to work on or see things that push the boundaries of what is appropriate. My freshman year of high school I was the lighting designer for a show called "Dog Sees God" which is essentially the story of Charlie Brown as a teenager. the show was so inappropriate that we were not allowed to do it on campus. It was a shock to be a part of, but the themes presented in the show about teen suicide, homophobia, and bullying were extremely relevant to my high school. Heathers isn't necessarily the right show, as many people before me have discussed, but I do think that high schools need to allow their students to perform shows that they want to do, and allow them to talk about what's important to them.
So, Johnson County is near Lawrence Kansas. So a lot of my friends from The University of Kansas were fed from Johnson County schools. I know a lot of the students who attended JOCO struggled with their time in high school. I think its great that this school is going after if the "Heathers" and tackling the issues this show presents. I will admit that the film satirizes the high school politics that would drive young students to take their own lives, but if this theatrical production gets the topic on the table I don't mind. When you're in high school everything seems like such a huge deal, and its hard to prove to kids that their time in high school is not the end all be all of their lives. Once you leave high school you talk to like three people and then no one else matters. So pleased this theatre put on "Heathers".
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