CT Teen Anti-Bullying Musical Hopes To Go National

HAMDEN, CT — One could hear a pin drop in the darkened parochial school gymnasium where a few hundred uniform-clad middle school-age students sat rapt. That is until after the performance ended and thunderous applause rang out. The voices of the young actors on the stage could have come from the High School Musical soundtrack, they were that good.

But the message though was perhaps even more powerful than the music. A young student near a reporter wiped her eyes afterward. So did the reporter.

‘Stand Up: The Bully Prevention Musical’ is part of the anti-bullying initiative, Stand Up Speak Out.

With the underlying theme that “no one is too broken to be fixed,” the show centers on a girl who has been bullied mercilessly and questions whether perhaps she deserved it, “that there was something wrong with me ...that made people hate me,” but finds with the help and support of friends and adults who cared, that she learned that “it is not my fault ... and that no one is too broken to be fixed.”

She stands up for herself and confronts the bully, who punishes many other kids in the school as well, but in a way that’s sensitive. She believes that the girl who has been bullying her, while others have watched and even gone along with the bullying, is herself perhaps suffering inside and lashes out because of it.

“...I’m sorry you feel the need to take your pain out on everyone else ...I will not be treated like that anymore. If you need someone to talk to, I’ll listen as a friend, but not as a punching bag.”

We won’t give it away, but rest assured, the girl comes to her own epiphany.

A la Glee, the showcase features high school students in a powerful musical theatre showcase touring Connecticut middle schools. Young people from around the country wanted to audition but it's a Connecticut show, for now, anyway. One of the student actors is Alexis Lariviere, of Madison who has been featured in major films. Most of the cast and crew is from North Haven, Madison and other nearby towns. And while they are regular students, when they need to be out of class to perform in schools, administrators are onboard: the production is that important.

Created and written by songwriter and producer and four-time Emmy nominee Jill Nesi. The production is taken from her musical 'Her Song,' about the lasting impact that bullying and mean behavior can have on children, highlights the severity of an issue that many of our children face. The ‘Stand Up: The Bully Prevention Musical’ showcase version helps share with kids ways to "stand up and speak out together."

The musical, directed by Chris Zullo, is in collaboration with the theatrical company he co-founded, Spotlight Stage Company.

Nesi says she wrote it because "far too many kids feel unloved, left out and far too many are bullied. She said the songs came organically for Nesi born out of her own frustration when her daughter was bullied. She said she wrote it to let kids know "you're not alone."

Zullo has said he can relate as he was bullied as a kid.

In an interview, he said that while in middle and high school, he was a gay "short skinny theater kid" and was a bully magnet. But he said he "channeled" that pain into what he wanted to do later in life. He's performed off-Broadway, is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, joining right after attending Western Connecticut State University, appeared in the movie "It’s Complicated," and has worked professionally in film, television and theater for over 15 years.

The goal of ‘Stand Up: The Bully Prevention Musical’ is to reach kids and educate them through music by showing them the effects of bullying and “how we can all work together to put an end to bullying once and for all.”

Stand Up and Speak Out "partners with state, national, and global institutions to braid the arts with best practices on social and emotional skills building to help young people lead in a more connected and empathetic world."

A dress rehearsal performance at St Rita’s in Hamden, Connecticut was attended by the director of the CT Commission on Women & Children, Steven Hernandez who told the children in the audience that kindness matters.

The group has performed for the United Nation's Women for Peace Association, at the The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and for lawmakers at the Connecticut State Capitol.

Nesi is meeting with Connecticut Commissioner of Education Dr. Miquel Cardona, who is interested in having ‘Stand Up: The Bully Prevention Musical’ be performed in schools around the state.

The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence associate director Dr. Robin Stern said they’re including the show in New York City events.

A movie producer has even reached out for a possible made-for-TV movie. And founder of the Lark Play Development Center, a Manhattan-based non-profit that works globally to help playwrights see their work produced, John Clinton Eisner has suggested to Nesi that the production should be performed in schools nationally.

And that's the dream: to be able to do a national tour of middle schools to spread their message: "...no one is too broken to be fixed.”

For National Bullying Prevention Month, Patch asked communities to "Share Their Stories" in an effort to help shine a light on bullying and ways to prevent it and help kids who are suffering.