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Augusta, October 27, 2005
Paige Case, 10th grade, and Sarah Lehman, 8th grade, travelled to Augusta on October 27th for all-day “Interactive Theatre” presentations at three schools in the State Capitol city. Performances to six different groups directly impacted about 275 students.
   “Interactive Theatre” deals with bullying and with drug abuse, starting with frank and starkly realistic plays which stimulate extended audience interaction. Paige Case led the discussions which touched on topics including the prevalence of “cyber bullying” on internet instant messaging to more subtle forms of harrassment by adults and even governments. “Do nations bully one another?” she asked. “Yes!” answered students.
   Sarah Lehman acted her roles with admirable skill . “No one was aware that she was playing these roles for the first time,” said Ron Pesha.
   An hour with seventh graders at Hodgkins Middle School opened the day. “Several students have told me they enjoyed hearing from students rather than adults,” wrote Barbara Livingstone of the Hodgkins faculty. Here's what Hodgkins students wrote:
 C.S. = I thought that the play good because it put out awareness on drug abuse and bullying.
B. Y. = I liked the play because it wasn’t like a lecture like usual.
C. M. = The play was very interesting about not doing drugs .
G. S. = The plays were great and they have a lot of useful info on how to solve problems in and around school.
B. G. = It was cool how the characters actually looked like they were in a real situation in the plays.
B. L. = The message was clear to the students because it was delivered by students.
   Three consecutive performances followed at Cony High School for audiences of fifty to sixty. “I heard a lot of good comments,” said Cony High Civil Rights advisor April Fenton-Hulett.
   Lubec Superintendent Mike Buckley attended presentations at Gilbert Elementary School. Former Interim Superintendent Dick Barnes saw presentations at Gilbert and Cony.
   Sarah and Paige performed both plays twice at Gilbert Elementary, for the entire fifth and then sixth grade classes. “So many hands went up when I asked questions!” said Paige. Bus driver Clarence Street assisted directly as the “audience” for the dress rehearsel.

Calais, November 22, 2005

    Calais, Maine, High School hosted Lubec's Interactive Theatre Team of Paige Case, 10th grade, and Sarah Lehman, 8th grade, on November 22. The two girls offered three one-hour presentations dealing with bullying, teen pregnancy, and oxycontin drug abuse.
    Calais Health Teacher Mrs. Janet Proulx, whose classroom hosted the first presentation, remarked how effectively the Lubec students, who ran the entire performances,  faced their peers who were also strangers. Calais High students said, "They did a very good job," and "I liked it a lot."
    57 students freely shared viewpoints during the three shows, the second in Mrs. Lynda Duplissen's class and the third in the chemistry lab. The wide-ranging discussions frequently touched on subjects such as responsibility and the ethics of truth and lying. When Paige Case asked, "Is teasing a form of bullying?" one Calais student answered, "No, it's messing around." Extended dialogue followed.
    For more details about the mission of Interactive Theatre, read the article below. 

Comments from Calais Students  "I think the girls did a very good job at asking us questions on what we thought. It made us think of what is going on in our everyday lives. I think the girls had a lot of talent of skill in what they did." 
"They did a good job and explained the situations very well so everyone understood it."
"I thought the interactive theater performance was good. The skits were a little short but effective."
"I think this was a great performance. I thought it was very dramatic and thoughtful. I didn't like the
bullying part because it reminded me when I was bullied."
"I thought they did a good job...and I think it's good to be able to talk to other teens about those topics."

Conners Emerson School, Bar Harbor  Jan 24, 2006

Lubec Interactive Theatre students Sarah Lehman and Paige Case dealt with bullying and conflict resolution with 3rd to 5th graders at Connors Emerson School. After performing their own skit about bullying they demonstrated through improvisation how altercations expand yet can be resolved.
Paige and Sarah then suggested starting points to the Bar Harbor students. Fifth graders played a brother and sister negotiating sibling strife. Fourth graders turned intimidation into toleration.
At the afternoon's conclusion a fourth grade teacher said that the Lubec girls "did a very fine job."
 

A reporter from the Mt. Desert Islander newspaper interviewed Paige and Sarah, then attended the fifth grade session.
The Bar Harbor PTSA funded Lubec expenses. Lubec's driver was Keith Capmbell. The volunteer advisor is Ron Pesha.

Lubec Interactive Theatre goes toTroy Howard Middle School, Belfast, April 11
to engage and demonstrate to the Civil Rights Team how to deal with conflict resolution through dramatic techniques.  Left, Paige Case and Sarah Lehman watch Belfast students imporove a bullying skit while a reporter from WABI, Channel 5, Bangor tapes a story for broadc ast on the evening news.

because kids listen to other kids

Belfast students liked:
Watching the girls do skits and getting a chance to make up our own.
I liked the role playing when the four or five people made up their own skit. And the two person skit where you started in a position.
I really liked creating our own plays the best because we got to create our own story-line and share it with the others. It was involving everybody and that was pretty cool.
I liked getting up and doing a theatrical project ourselves.
They should come back again to show us more skits.

Belfast students suggested: Having the girls do more skits that they made up and see what different kinds of skits look like.
Maybe they should answer questions as their character would so that the audience could fend for the other people in the plays.
I would have kids join in the scene and perform how they would react walking in on the situation or act as the bully or victim.

Just wanted to let you know we had only positive reviews on your visit
to our school. the student enjoyed your group and found them very easy
to listen to "realistic", students were kept interested for the hour
presentation.
Thanks you so much for coming here and sharing your program with us at
woodland high school! Great job!
Karen Thomas, School Nurse

Woodland Jr.-Sr. High School, Baileyville, ME
May 18, 2007