A few weeks ago, I was asked if I would consider writing a short play about bullying. Parents today knows that bullying is on a whole different level now than what we experienced as kids because of the internet and cell phones. It’s a really important thing to address and something close to my heart as a mom. But I was already completely buried under deadlines and other things and didn’t see how I would possibly have time to write another play.
In fact, my thought process about it went pretty much just like this…
*I receive the  email about writing bullying play just as husband and I are walking downstairs before heading to bed.*
Me, at top of stairs: I’m going to say no. I don’t have time to do it, firstly, and I also don’t even have even the slightest idea of what to write about.
Husband: OK.
Me, reaching bottom of stairs: Crap. I have an idea.
Once you’ve got an idea, you can’t say no. That’s the rule. No backsies.
So, I ended up taking something that happened to me in high school and combining it with a few other things that happened to friends and then mixing that mess up with some modern technology that wasn’t around when I was in school (I’m so old, I know). The resulting drama, Masks, is an exploration of who’s really the hero and who’s the villain when it comes to bullying and how we can all play both roles at different points in our lives. I don’t know if it’s going to change anyone’s life, but I’m hopeful it will at least provide people on both sides of the fist something to think about.
The one ironic thing is that, because I’m known for writing so much commedia dell’arte, I know the title is going to mislead people into thinking that this play is commedia-related while it isn’t. The characters are making masks for the school play when the drama unfolds which is a) a metaphor for the hero/villain thing and b) very similar to what was actually happening during the real moment that inspired the play. But since I knew people familiar with my work might make that connection, as a little easter egg, the play they are performing, with hero and villain masks and clown tights, could easily be interpreted as one of my commedia fairy tales.
Here’s the specs:
Masks by Hillary DePiano
4 w, 10-15 minWhen a sneaks takes a picture of Mackenzie in the locker-room and spreads it all over the web, all she wants is to be left alone until the bad guys move on. But when secrets from the past come to light, the lines between good and evil blur until no one’s sure who’s the victim and who’s the bully. Can friendship survive when everyone’s been unmasked for who they really are?
If you’d like a free perusal copy of Masks, let me know.
*= I know the first sentence is passive voice, son. I’m being coy for reasons that will become clear later.
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
Our workshop group of high school theatre students just did a reading of MASKS.
After discussing it a bit, we then got up and blocked it. That went so well that we decided to have one of the students take a video of the staged reading. This means we read the script three times through. Everyone involved agreed that the script read well and the characters each had substance with interesting relationship dynamics that emerged in interesting ways.
We agreed that the play does very well in exploring the complexities of bullying, showing both bully and victim in a humanly believable way. The idea of making the masks more than merely a metaphor works well. We were impressed with how the play introduces, complicates and resolves the problem all within 10 minutes. Our students expressed interest in actually producing this for the anti-bullying program our high school does each year.