Stop, that wasn’t kind

Bullying begins at a tender age, when children have no impulse control and are unaware of the grave consequences of their actions. There are countless organizations out there bringing awareness to bullying, and the theatre department’s Blackbox is right behind them, continuing their annual performance of Rewind Faires across the Wylie Independent School District elementary schools.

“Bullying is evolving,” director Andrea Farnham said. “It’s taking place in different shapes and forms that we need to represent in the show.”

Put together in chronological scenes of a normal elementary school day, Rewind Faires is an original show by the Blackbox students. In every scene there is some sort of bullying or act of putting someone else down, and the Rewind Faires interject with their jingle: STOP, THAT WASN’T KIND, making all the actors freeze on stage and literally rewind their scene which never fails to make the young audience laugh. After every scene, the principal and the fairies, this year played by junior Emily Johns, deliver a speech about the moral or meaning behind the scene.

“Even though there’s not that big of an age gap, you still feel like you’re on a high pedestal appealing to the kids,” senior Ginna Gillispie said. “It really makes you feel like you’re doing something positive.”

In a span of two days, Blackbox toured eight elementary schools in the district.

“Even though I played a bully, I’ve impacted the kids by being an example of what not to do,” sophomore Erika Miller said. “Sometimes they don’t realize that they themselves are being a bully.”