A Collective Creation
by North Battleford Comprehensive High School Drama Students
 |
"Learning to Fly" is a student written play about a young man facing the onset of a mental illness. J, an intelligent and educated person, doesn't understand what is happening to him and tries to hide it from his family and friends. In isolation, his fear quickly advances to paranoia and delusions. People he knows no longer appear as themselves, but rather have changed into distorted and grotesque versions of their former selves. Fear evolves into anger as he tries to protect himself from perceived danger.
The play is also ultimately about learning to accept yourself and choosing your own path. Not living your life to please others. Letting go and finding freedom. The image of a kite is used in the play as a metaphor for life and freedom.
The characters (other than J), all wear distorted masks which exaggerate their personalities and are meant to represent them as J perceives them in his “reality”. There are moments when the masks come down and we see glimpses of them as real people.
The character of Id is always masked as it represents a part of the
brain. Id is the primitive undifferentiated part of the psychic apparatus
that reacts blindly on a pleasure - pain level, it is the seat of psychic
energy, and is the ultimate source of higher psychic components (id and
superego).
“Going crazy is a symbolic experience. Reality is still there
but you keep interpreting it. Everything becomes symbolic. The symbols
chase each other.”
- a mental health survivor
| Web Site created by Sherron Burns
and Donna DesRoches
and Drama students from the Collective June 2000 |
Copyright, April 2000
For permission to perform notify Sherron Burns |
| Character | Other Role | |
| Ryan Johnson | Id | Student Director |
| Jon Adams | J. | |
| Annie Parkinson | The Father & The Friend & The Doctor | Visual Design |
| Kathy Brown | The Mother & The Doctor | Web Page |
| Becky Lundrigan | The Sister | Web Page |
| Chandra Kasper | The Grandfather | |
| Erika Nylander | The Eternal Bully (Professor, Landlord & Doctor) | |
| Jessica Wyatt | The Date & The Doctor | Web Page |
| Sherron Burns | Adult Director |