Tesina Girls like that

EVAN PLACEY – A MODERN PLAYWRIGHT

Evan Placey is a Canadian-British playwright who grew up in

Toronto where his mother, a life long theatre buff and until her retirement a

special needs teacher, encouraged performing arts in her son and now lives

in south London with his partner Daniel and a little boy they have adopted

together.

When he was eight, Evan’s mother persuaded him to transfer to a

specialist performing arts school called Claude Watson School for the Arts

although he didn’t initially want to change schools. At thirteen he

transferred to Earl Haig Secondary School. Evan began to realise – and his

teachers made it clear – that he wasn’t as good at acting as some of his

peers but he was in the process of learning exactly how plays and theatre

work – a fine basis for his future career. While still at school he directed

and produced student-written plays and then produced the entire one act

play festival the following year.

In 2007 Evan graduated from Royal Central School of Speech and

Drama in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media. At the same time – in

order to pay bills – Evan worked at school as a learning support assistant,

assigned to an autistic boy. Then he became an education co-ordinator and

then a project manager at Hackney Empire. He ran youth theatre projects.

Mother of Him was Evan’s debut full-length play produced by

Courtyard Theatre of London. It won the King’s Cross Award for New

Writing, Canada’s RBC National Playwriting Competition and the Samuel

French Canadian Play Contest. It was also adapted for Radio.

Evan’s plays include: Pronoun, Girls Like That, Banana Boys, How

Was It For You?, Suicide(s) in Vegas, Scan Artists, Little Criminals and

Holloway Jones which won the Brian Way Award 2012 for Best Play for

Young People.

Evan’s one-act and short plays include: Phone Play, Dinner on the

Fourteenth Floor, RainbowBright23, Twelve, Struck by Love/Train,

Re:Generation – a community play, Grains of a Brighton Summer, True

Love Waits, Terror Tales, Supergrass, Live Feed, Running Scared, Of Love,

Friendship & Protest, Band Wagon, TOK 2: Writing the New Toronto

which he write while under an Emerging Writer Mentorship with Diaspora

.

Dialogues

Now Evan is a Creative Writing Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the

University of Southampton, and also teaches playwriting for the National

Theatre, the Tricycle, Arvon, and in prisons. He also collaborates with

Birmingham Rep, Royal Plymouth Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse

where he wrote his play Girls Like That in 2013.

“GIRLS LIKE THAT”

Evan Placey's Girls Like That is an ensemble play exploring the

pressures on young people today in the wake of advancing technology. It

makes a hard examination of the psychological harm that can be caused by

the misuse of on-line media by teenagers; misuse that is often sexual in

nature, and usually by their own peers.

The play is set during a history lesson at St. Helen's School. The

teacher is talking about the suffragettes, when the picture of Scarlett

completely naked is sent to the phones of everyone at school. No one

protects Scarlett and stands with her, because everyone, including her said

“friends”, is too busy gossiping about her body, comparing the size of their

own breasts against hers and denouncing Scarlett as a slut instead of

helping out in finding the culprit who released the photo in the first place.

Everyone is pointing and staring, making her feel uncomfortable, and

shouting out some pretty horrific words.

When a naked picture of the boy everyone fancies also starts

circulating, the reactions from boys and girls are very different. His body is

admired and he’s seen as a bit of star. Because a boy who sleeps around is a

hero and girls like Scarlett are sluts. “They’re not girls like us. And they

have to be punished.”

A chorus of young women offer a glimpse into the lives and minds of

teenage girls with the help of eye-opening, often uncomfortably honest

play. It deserves to be widely seen by teenage audiences. And by their

parents too.

We are shown how nasty girls can be towards other girls, and that the

same actions taken by males is viewed very differently. The use of social

media to hurt and bully and incite hatred is very common in our society

these days. Using music and dance sequences, and featuring shifts in time

to explore the evolution of feminist consciousness, the play focuses on

adolescent female friendship in the present day and its fragility in the face

of societal and cultural pressures. th

The play has a context of women and feminism in the 20 century. It

brings to the front women from different periods in history who have

fought for their own rights to do something that for their time period would

have been considered an outrageous thing to do, like smoking. It offers a

challenge as to how we should be treating each other now.

The play was awarded Best Play for Young Audiences at the 2015

Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.

TEENAGE GIRLS AND THE INFLUENCE OF

SOCIAL MEDIA

It's impossible to imagine modern teenagers without Internet and

social media. The impact of online socialization on adolescents is very

controversial and intriguing. Many people are concerned about the fact that

electronic communication in comparison with face-to-face contacts

negatively affects the development of adolescents.

A new study by the UK Ministry of Education found that the mental

health of adolescent girls in Britain is deteriorating. The analysis revealed

that now 37% of girls suffer from psychological disorders.

The experiment showed that girls can be more exposed to the

negative influence of social networks. Young, not fully capable of self-

control, yielding to peer pressure, they can easily get into trouble in the

media space.

In adolescence, qualities such as self-confidence and self-control are

acquired. Due to the fact that the teenager's brain is not yet fully formed,

the level of awareness and personal space is limited, so the risk of

publishing inappropriate photos and videos is very high without

considering the long-term consequences. Data that is laid out on the

network can go beyond the circle of friends and go on a free-floating

voyage through the Internet, leading to horrific consequences.

Unlike their male peers, girls share their personal information more

often, thereby increasing the likelihood of negative peer reaction, jeers or

malicious comments.

Social networks also have a negative impact on the process of

maturation, facilitating girls' access to "adult" world and encouraging

sexual activity, although they are not ready yet to face its difficulties.