.............a theatrical residency for our Middle School children
“The worst thing about being me is …” is an improvisational, interactive theatrical experience for our children as they pass through one of the most difficult and for some, cruel stages of life - junior high school.
The peer pressure, the clicks, the cool kids verses the outcast (some of us adults are still recovering from days way back when). The goal of “The worst thing about being me is …” is to provide some balance as well as compassion for every student - because even the “cool kids’ have their stuff.
The setup is simple -- the student’s ticket for admission is their answer in advance to the statement, “The worst thing about being me is…” When they enter, they anonymously drop their “ticket” into a box. Once all the cards are deposited, the box is brought to the center of the stage.
Jarrett enters and begins by revealing the worst thing about being him - “I’m divorced and so I don’t get to see my daughter every single night and every single morning. That’s the worst thing about being me.” Then he reaches into the box and pulls out the first card. As Jim continues to read the cards, a theme clearly emerges - a consistant theme where ever Jarrett’s performs the piece through out the world - “The worst thing about being me is I have no friends ... I’m too short, too tall, too ugly, too dumb, too poor, too ... whatever but the theme is simple -- “I don’t feel like I’m enough...”
As Jim reads each card he talks about these “shortcomings” with compassion and empathy and soon the students realize that every one feels like they do. Every single one of them. Soon the focus of the piece shifts from “the worst thing” to Jim asking, “Now, what’s the best thing about being you… because I don’t ever again want you to take inventory of what’s wrong about you without adding what’s right about you!”
Jarrett adds, “Once again, the goal of the play is to help all students realize that they are not alone in their “shortcomings” and to challenge them to have compassion for every single person they meet because we all have our stuff.”
Wherever Jarrett does show - from the United States to Europe - the cards are always the same. Click here to view the slideshow.