About the Play
Dramedy. 50-60 minutes. 3 males, 3 females, plus extras (any gender). Suitable for middle school and older.
Children's Theatre of Charlotte commissioned this one set anti-violence touring play for performances both at their beautiful home theatre and subsequently for every Charlotte-Mechlenberg middle school for a four-year period along with conflict negotiation workshops. The innovative plan was to create an entire generation of youth with mediation skills to then create a climate of conciliation in the high schools when critical mass was achieved in the final year of the experiment. The play's substance grew out of two years of original interviews with incarcerated youth, public defenders, district attorneys, students, counselors, resource officers, teachers, principal, parents and several town meetings.
Synopsis
A film crew sets up to broadcast a live performance of a new television pilot, The Adventures of Mech-Boy. As the audience files in, there is panic onstage because the actor playing the Robot star of the anti-violence show has gotten caught in his trailer. The frantic director recruits a kid from the audience to replace the star seconds before the broadcast begins, but the impromptu actor becomes increasingly uncooperative and comically inventive as he struggles to make the hokey show reflect the real challenges that youth face in the difficult environment of a public school.