Pressure

Pressure by Lindsay Price is not your average “teen angst” play. It’s theatrical. It’s character driven. Some of the teenagers succeed with dealing with their pressure, and some don’t. That’s the way life works. Four teenagers struggle with life. Alex is a refugee. Tera is faced with an unpopular decision when all she wants to be is popular. Penny is getting up at five in the morning just so she can accomplish all she has to do in a day. And Kyle can’t live up to his parents’ expectations. It is the week before the prom and for these four characters, everything is coming to a head. This play is candid and uncompromising, with no easy answers or neat and tidy endings. The script is ideal for groups who have varying degrees of ability. There are parts for both novice and advanced actors. David Heywood and the students from Black Hills High School in Tumwater, WA didn’t feel the pressure when it came to their production of Pressure. Student director, Logan Hyer-Long shared thoughts on the group’s interpretation of the play and the successes and challenges of bringing one’s own ideas as a student director to a production: “Copyrighted in 1997, Pressure’s themes still resonate with today’s teenagers. Typically a phrase like “still resonates” would be used in reference to a classical piece of literature (or something at least written more than 22 years ago), but nowadays, society is changing quickly and drastically. This play was written before social media. Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even Myspace had not been injected into teen culture at this time. The clear theme of this piece is pressures, but when I read it I knew it was missing today’s biggest one: social media. I was not initially drawn to this play, but when I saw the part of “The Mob”, I started to envision the possibilities: Incorporating phones as light sources that only revealed part of an actor; having a sound that is both random and cacophonous; people moving in patterns, with the same motions, but never crossing paths. All of these ideas reflected my opinions of social media. The Mob started to turn into a metaphor for the world that happens on our phones: incomplete, chaotic, and impersonal. While the general narrative can be seen as taking place in the pre-digital-age, our direction of “The Mob” is our way of incorporating the digital era. We suggest as you watch scenes from Pressure to ask yourself, “Would this interaction happen in person today?”. Or try, “Would this monologue instead be a post to social media?”. How would this narrative be different if people had not reached out to someone else? In some instances, how would it be different if someone had? In general, how would this story be different in 2019? Unfortunately not all of my ideas made it into the show. Some ideas made it, but did not happen how I had hoped. Others made the cut, but changed as rehearsals went on. Art is seldom complete; artists simply decide when their work is ready enough to be presented. I find it hard not to cling onto the frustrations throughout this process. This is what Alex and I have created. We created something, and that alone is something anyone should be proud of.”

This week on Spread the Love Craig talks about Pressure.

I had a very interesting conversation with a teacher who was familiar with Theatrefolk plays and had recently put up Pressure. She had wanted to do Anonymous but it was ‘rejected’ by her administration. You see, she had to vet every play before moving forward with rehearsals. I’m sure many of you must follow the same procedure at your schools. The teacher was able to put on Pressure without issue. This is a play, you may have already guessed, about the pressures that teens face. Some of these pressures certainly aren’t PC, or ‘clean’ as some like their material to be. In Pressure we have: • underaged drinking • it is inferred that a character was forced into sexual activity. • it is inferred that a character succumbs to the pressures she’s dealing with and kills herself. These are indeed tough situations, frankly, as they should be. They are heavyweights which some of the characters deal with and some don’t. So, the admin did not see issue with Pressure. Here’s why they vetoed Anonymous: • the word “God” is used. • the word “gay” is used. • the word “sex-ed” is used. Words. If this teacher wanted to do this play, those words would have to be removed. Thankfully, this teacher refused and did something else. But what a fascinating comparison, huh? Words vs actions. Wouldn’t you assume it would be Pressure that would be nixed? Are the three words above THAT damaging to the teen psyche? What would happen if they heard those words? What is so wrong with using those words? Why do they cause fear? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I don’t understand why or how the removal of words and the removal of topics prepares teenagers for the world at large. What words have been vetoed at your school?

This week on Spread the Love, we talk about Pressure, a drama by Lindsay Price.