In an effort to prevent episodes of school violence — such as the Columbine High School incident — some government and school officials have been adding metal detectors and armed police officers to their schools. For his part, playwright Robert Sandberg, a University lecturer in the theater and dance program, is helping to combat the problem by employing some of his best skills: He wrote a play about school violence.
"In Between," a story about a high schooler caught between popular students and outcasts, is a play Sandberg penned a year ago, which explores everyday violence that occurs in the lives of youth.
Produced by the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, the drama is gaining recognition nationwide, and playhouse companies in Seattle and Houston are planning to perform the play this year. Tomorrow, the work will be the centerpiece of a day-long symposium on school violence sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and The Center for Youth Policy & Programs.
The booming interest in the play is no surprise to Sandberg, however. "There's a concern among government agencies as well as artists about issues of violence among young people," he said. "The George Street production of the play could bring impact on kids in terms of the issue of violence."
The play, which also has been performed for high school students across the state, is designed to grab teenagers' attention with a realistic portrayal of school violence.
"The response of most of the kids who see it is that it is a pretty realistic play," Sandberg noted. "The play takes kids on the journey through what seem to be common everyday experiences of abuse, violence, confrontation in a way I think they recognize from their world."
The play's director, Ted Sod, expressed a similar belief. "I think we've hit a chord of real characters they relate to and situations that are real school situations," he said. "[Sandberg] has captured their world. They're seeing themselves reflected."
"The play should provoke thinking of how their lives relate to the characters in the play," Sod said. "I think we have been able to pull this off."
Despite its growing popularity, Sandberg's play and its exploration of school violence has not always been accepted by school officials, he noted. Some educators were fearful of the subject when he visited schools to collect material for the play, Sandberg said.
"People wanted to believe that it's not going to happen here. They think it's something that happens in other places," he explained.
The recent shootings in Jonesboro, Ark., and Columbine, Colo., however, made the threat of gun violence in schools more immediate, prompting school officials to be more receptive to his project, Sandberg said.
Even after the shootings, the play still needed to be modified to be accepted by officials. "He worked on so many drafts to make it school-friendly," Sod said of Sandberg's diligence in working on the play. "The first draft was very good but very disturbing."
For Sandberg, a disturbing visit to his son's Princeton middle school in 1997 served as an impetus to write the play.
"I saw a lot of fighting at his middle school and wanted to know more about the kinds of violence that happened in schools, particularly there," he said. After the visit, Sandberg said he immediately started interviewing students in Princeton and Trenton, hoping to use the words of children themselves for an interview-based play.
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