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Mazel
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Peer Education

Project TRUST allows student actors to explore
tough topics in a constructive way.

RONELLE GRIER
Special to the Jewish News

I

f attending a school play conjures up images of rousing
musicals like Grease or tear-jerkers like Our Town, then the
latest performances by West Bloomfield High School
(WBHS) drama students will give audiences a whole new
outlook on student productions.
These students will be performing plays they penned them-
selves about issues that concern them: bullying, violence, stereo-
types, racism, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, sexual
harassment.
The experience is part of Project TRUST (Teaching and -
Reaching Using Students and Theater), an award-winning educa-
tional curriculum developed by the Minneapolis-based Illusion
Theater and in use by 40 school districts throughout the country.
Jewish Family Service has teamed up with Illuminart
Productions of West Bloomfield to bring Project TRUST to sev-
eral local school districts, including West Bloomfield, Bloomfield
Hills, Farmington and Walled Lake.
The goal is peer education through theater, allowing young
audiences to identify with the student actors and to view them as
role models.
Before each presentation, materials are provided to teachers and
school social workers to facilitate pre- and post-play discussion.
JFS also provides referral information when additional resources
are needed.
Students from the WBHS drama class will perform two plays:
What Goes Around for middle school students and Peace Up! for
the high school level.
Before beginning work on the scripts, the students participated
in a two-day workshop to familiarize themselves with the issues
in each play.
Facilitators are Illuminart Productions partners Arlene Sorkin
and Patty Ceresnie, both of West Bloomfield. Sorkin, a social
worker with a private practice in Southfield, serves as producing
director, while Ceresnie is artistic director. The two women take
turns moderating the performances, along with Barbara Berger
White, program director of outreach services for JFS.

Aaron Lebovic, 16, and Hillary Hayman, 17, both ofWest Bloomfield

Close To Home

In a segment about stereotypes, WBHS student Hillary Hayman
talks about the expectation that she will get good grades because
she is Jewish, and the pressure she has felt as a result.
PEER EDUCATION on page 40

Pat Scanlon, 18, Britney Schanes, 15, and Andrew Lubetsky 15, all ofWest Bloomfield

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