Presentation Description

SHOWDOWN 2.0 is an interactive, Forum Theatre performance written by Luciano Iogna that tackles the issue of bullying in a hyper-connected, ever-changing technological landscape. Developed in consultation with High school students, SHOWDOWN 2.0 is a hard-hitting and realistic portrayal of bullying, exploring how technology is influencing the actions and outcomes of violence and harassment. This piece explores the dynamics of life and the impact that individual struggles of a student have on other students around them.

Following the interactions of four high school students, SHOWDOWN 2.0 spot lights the challenges students face everyday, presents a worst case scenario play, and afterwards invites audience members to step into the action and rehearse for reality.

Presentation Goals

  • Helps teens recognize the different forms that bullying can take: name-calling, exclusion, extortion, threats, physical violence and intimidation.
  • Calls attention to discriminatory attitudes that may be motivating a bully’s behaviour, such as racism, sexism or homophobia.
  • Provides students with a toolbox of positive ideas and solutions to bullying behaviour.

Tour Details

This presentation toured the GTA and surrounding areas regularly between 2010-14 for grades 6-8 and 9-12 students.

Testimonials

“Mixed Theatre Company’s “Showdown 2.0″ presentation was an intense, direct and audience-engaging play that captivated our student body from start to finish! It is often very difficult to hold our students’ attention for any length of time and the actors of Mixed Theatre Company had them hooked for almost 2 hours – you could hear a pin drop almost the entire time – it was AWESOME!!!”

“This is a relevant and realistic portrayal of the damage students can do to each other with their actions but also highlights the power of choice to determine if they want to help or hurt others.”

“We thought it was FANTASTIC – Loved it!”