For the past, uh....... four months?..... I've been facilitating a group at a mental health facility. The place is what is termed a "Psychiatric Social Rehabilitation" (PSR). I'd rather not describe the place, but anyway, I am the facilitator of my own Creative Expression group there that meets on Friday afternoons. The project: writing a play that revolves around two main characters: Nicole Johnson (a student) and Ashley Higbe (math teacher).
Every Friday, I have group brain-storming sessions. I ask a million questions ("What do we want this character's name to be?" or "What color is his/her hair?") and take notes on what responses I get. It's a really fun process even though only one or two people per group have suggestions. Nicole is a very dynamic person it seems. She is born with a club foot and due to an edict passed on by Mrs. Higbe, Nicole must be pushed around her school in a wheelchair by a fellow student to make sure she isn't late for class. Nobody likes Nicole because she's a new kid in town & she's also disabled. Not to mention the fact she dresses funny and has very weird hair.
And one of the female staff of the PSR had the wild idea that Nicole's father were to have an affair with a woman who was not his wife around one year before Nicole's birth. So I've soldiered on through that particular sticky wicket. Turns out Nicole's father & the woman who would become the school's librarian are the biological parents of the school bully, Samamtha Riely, who just happens to be Nicole's worst enemy!
Aye Carumba!
Oh... did I mention this the first play I've ever written? *mutters*
P.S. I have tentative title for the play: "My First Detention At Del-Haas." ("The Nicole Johnson Story" just suggests its something based off real life... which the play completely isn't.)
