Alana Valentine's "Cyberbile" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Brief description of Cyberbile

Cyberbile appears in a two-play collection of Alana Valentine plays; the other one is Grounded. 

Cyberbile is fast-paced, accessible and candid in its exposure and exploration of teenage bullying. It is edgy, and at times, raw and confronting. The play grew out of a Sydney’s school’s concerns about cyberbullying and its impact on its students. Subsequently 700 students were surveyed, and 34 interviews took place. Cyberbile was first performed in December 2011 and since then has been a popular play for schools to include in their drama repertoire as well as small theatre companies around the country. 

Cyberbile features three characters—Oriana, Celine and Terri—who are very credible and identifiable adolescent girls. The girls move between realistic, everyday dialogue and free verse to capture their emotions and experiences.  The girls discuss strategies to help each other and the broader school group regrading cyberbullying. They know they cannot eliminate it but they can encourage openness and ways to build resilience. A range of other “figures” take on the role of different voices from different perspectives including parents, teachers and cyber victims. These “figures” are similar to the Greek chorus style and will offer students some powerful and compelling perspectives to explore. The “figures” can be played by a range of people so that wider classroom or group involvement can be maximised. 

Alana Valentine is a prolific, popular and award-winning Australian playwright who has mastered the verbatim style of theatre. She is also a dramatist, librettist and director working in theatre, film, opera and television. Valentine has explored a range of subjects related to Australians’ interests including the Super League controversy of South Sydney NRL in Run Rabbit Run, the challenges and complexities faced by Lindy Chamberlain in Letters to Lindy and is the writer of the HSC play for Standard Module A – Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah. Alana’s website expands on her repertoire: https://alanavalentine.com/

In exploring this play please provide opportunities for your students to be active in vocalising scenes. 

Get them up and moving.

Create a classroom culture to explore drama texts where plays are seen as a unique form and intended for performance. Scripts are prompts for performance where students move and are active with scripts. It is not about creating actors but vocalizing. Use the metalanguage of script: stage directions, set design, scenes, acts.

Also, drama texts provide authentic experiences for collaborative learning especially in the capacity to transform the script beyond the page into something meaningful.

Distinctive features of Cyberbile

• A short play based on real interviews and transcripts from Sydney students.
• The Foreword provides the interesting back story of the play’s origin which will engage students
• Belongs to the verbatim style of theatre
• Three main characters and a range of numerous other voices to enable wider class participation
• Nineteen short scenes which propels the narrative and momentum
• Minimal set demands 
• Language is very accessible and reflects youth vernacular and idiom
• The ending is compelling and heartfelt.

Ways to use Cyberbile in the classroom

Preparing for the play’s context/content:

• Your students may have already experienced cyberbullying. Some may be reluctant to discuss it so a general discussion about how cyberbullying manifests itself in the online world eg Facebook, emails, Instagram will provide an excellent introduction to the play. Possible discussion starters: Why is the internet such fertile ground for bullying? What is the most destructive aspect of cyberbullying? Is it possible for victims to ignore it? 
• The Australian Government eSafety Commissioner website could be an interesting and less intimidating way into the play’s context.
• These points from the website could be valuable to start students’ discussion:

Cyberbullying is when someone uses the internet to be mean to a child or young person so they feel bad or upset. It can happen on a social media site, game, app, or any other online or electronic service or platform. It can include: posts, comments, texts, messages, chats, livestreams, memes, images, videos and emails.

These are some examples of ways the internet can be used to make someone feel bad or upset:

• • • Sending hurtful messages about them.
    • Sharing embarrassing photos or videos of them.
    • Spreading nasty online gossip about them.
    • Leaving them out online.
    • Creating fake accounts in their name.
    • Tricking them into believing you are someone else. 

The link to Real stories will certainly provide resonance for some students

Exploring the play

• Read the opening speech by the first “figure.” In what ways does the playwright create immediacy and engagement? 

Scene 1 Figure 1

I was…I guess I was sitting at my computer and I was replying to an email… and I just typed one word which I guess was stronger than I usually use and that word was ‘slut’ and I just typed it and it felt good to use a stronger word and I sent it off and nothing happened and it sort of just went from there. I would describe it that… as I started using stronger and more forceful words on the screen…like I found this total word for it which is vitriol and that’s what it is like…like by shooting this vit into the email then the less there was in me.

• Encourage students to “walk through” the script and note these features:
  
  • Short scenes
  • There are 8 “figures”
  • The three main characters – Celine, Oriana and Terri feature in many scenes.

Does anything else stand out in this initial experience of the play? 

• This play needs to be read in the classroom not only taken home to read. Class reading both energises students by the “groupness” and celebrates the power of the spoken word in the English classroom. The play reading should be able to be completed in one lesson to build interest and pace.
• Discuss how the class would like to “read” the play: consider the same three students play Celine, Oriana and Terri and the “figures” be distributed throughout the class. Alternatively, consider a hat which would characterise Celine, Oriana and Terri and different students take the part of these girls and wear the character-specific hat. 
• Before reading the play allow students time to familiarise with their “part” so they can build fluency, volume, pace and pausing for effect. 
• Build a class character board: what are 5-10 words which best capture the characters of Celine, Oriana and Terri? Discuss an actor from television or film who would be well cast in this role.
• Create a table for the different “figures”:

• Groups to choose a speech of one of the unnamed “figures” to present to the class
• Discuss the techniques needed to amplify the key ideas e.g. tone, pausing, pace, volume, sound effects – consider using percussive instruments – what type – when to use the sound effects. Suggested scenes: 1, 3,5,7,9,11,13,15, 17,19

Reflection

Discuss the key ideas of your chosen speech and how this “figure” contributes perspectives to the play’s key ideas. How did your collaborative group presentation help you understand this scene more fully? Choose one other group presentation and comment on what ways did they bring their scene to life.

Writing tasks

• In what ways does the opening scene draw the audience into the key ideas of the play?  (500 words with close reference to the language choices of this scene) 
  OR
• In what ways does the closing scene draw together the key ideas of the play? How did the final scene impact on you? (500 words with close reference to the language choices of this scene)
• Discuss how does Alana Valentine use the various “figures” to explore the wider implications and effects of cyberbullying? With close reference to three “figures” and close textual reference examine this question.  Use the completed table on the “figures” as a starting point. 
• Compose a “story” using the revelations from one “figure” which could be posted on the eSafety site – include a photograph.

Taking the play further:

1. A new edition of the play is being released for schools

• In small groups form a writing team 
• Collaboratively compose a final poem from Oriana to conclude the play
• Discuss ideas, tone and mood
• Use her other poems as a model or choose a different style
• Consider sending the extras scenes to Alana Valentine and include a justification of the poetic form and features you chose

2. Anti-cyberbullying campaign

• Watch this YouTube from 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTLBQBYX2MQ
• In small groups create your own poster, short film or animation which could be a possible replacement for the YouTube to better represent the current decade.

3. Sustained response:

In the Foreword to Cyberbile, Greg Friend makes a poignant statement: 

“Drama is a powerful tool to educate and inform the audience. It can open deep wounds, awaken suppressed emotions and explore ways of healing or changing lives.”

To what extent is this achieved in Alana Valentine’s Cyberbile? With close reference to the play examine this comment.

Relevant details in relation to the new English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: Cyberbile is a drama text written by an Australian playwright.  It contains cultural, social and gender perspectives

Concepts could include Context and perspective • Representation.

Syllabus outcomes and content for Stage 5

Reading, viewing and listening to texts

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to interpret complex texts EN5-RVL-01

Reading, viewing and listening skills

• Develop a deeper understanding of themes, ideas or attitudes by revisiting and reinterpreting texts to find new meaning

Reading, viewing and listening for meaning

• Analyse the main ideas and thematic concerns represented in texts
• Investigate how layers of meaning are constructed in texts and how this shapes a reader’s understanding and engagement
• Clarify and justify personal responses to texts, explaining how aspects of the text, such as character, genre, tone, salience or voice, position a reader and influence these personal responses
• Analyse how the use of language forms and features in texts have the capacity to create multiple meanings
• Analyse how language use evolves over time and is influenced by social and technological changes and developments

Reading for challenge, interest and enjoyment

• Read increasingly complex texts that challenge thinking, pique interest, enhance enjoyment and provoke a personal response
• Consider how the social, cultural and ethical positions represented in texts represent, affirm or challenge views of the world
• Evaluate experiences of reading by sharing responses to texts
• Evaluate the ways reading texts help us understand ourselves and make connections to others and the world

Reflecting

• Reflect on how reading, viewing and listening to texts has informed and inspired learning
• Reflect on how an appreciation of texts can be enhanced through re-reading, and close or critical study
• Understand and reflect on the value of reading for personal growth and cultural richness
• Reflect on how reading promotes a broad and balanced understanding of the world and enables students to explore wider universal issues

Understanding and responding to texts A

A student analyses how meaning is created through the use and interpretation of increasingly complex language forms, features and structures EN5-URA-01

Code and convention

• Use metalanguage effectively to analyse how meaning is constructed by linguistic and stylistic elements in texts
• Analyse how language forms, features and structures, specific or conventional to a text’s medium, context, purpose and audience, shape meaning, and experiment with this understanding through written, spoken, visual and multimodal responses

Connotation, imagery and symbol

• Analyse how figurative language and devices can be used to represent complex ideas, thoughts and feelings to contribute to larger patterns of meaning in texts, and experiment with this in own texts

Point of view

• Examine elements of focalisation, such as omniscience, limitations, indirect speech, tone, reliability and multiple narrators, and how these interact to shape perceptions of meaning in texts, and apply this in own texts

Characterisation

• Analyse how engaging, dynamic and complex characters are constructed in texts using language features and structures, and use these features and structures in own texts
• Explore how characters in texts can be lifelike constructions with whom audiences establish intellectual and emotional connections, and can be perceived to reflect, challenge or subvert particular values and attitudes
• Analyse how characters can serve structural roles in narrative, such as foils and drivers of action and conflict, and manipulate these ideas when composing own texts

Narrative

• Analyse how narrative conventions vary across genres, modes, media and contexts and how they can be used to represent ideas and values and shape responses, and apply this understanding in own texts
• Explore how narratives can represent and shape personal and shared identities, values and experiences

Understanding and responding to texts B

A student evaluates how texts represent ideas and experiences, and how they can affirm or challenge values and attitudes EN5-URB-01

Theme

• Analyse how themes can be understood to underpin cohesive meaning in texts, and apply this understanding in own texts
• Appreciate the role of the audience in perceiving themes and how these themes can offer insights into an author’s perspective

Perspective and context

• Understand how the personal perspectives of audiences are a product of historical and cultural contexts
• Analyse how texts can be understood or interpreted from different perspectives, and experiment with this idea in own texts
• Evaluate how texts can position audiences to accept, challenge or reject particular perspectives of the world, and reflect on this in own texts
• Analyse how elements of an author’s personal, cultural and political contexts can shape their perspectives and representation of ideas, including form and purpose
• Appreciate how all communication is a product of cultural context
• Explain how texts affirm or challenge established cultural attitudes and values in different contexts
• Research, select and sequence appropriate evidence from texts and reliable sources to construct cohesive and authoritative arguments

Style

• Analyse how the distinctive aesthetic qualities and stylistic features of a text can shape and be shaped by its purpose, and experiment with this in own texts
• Examine the way an author’s distinct personal style shapes meaning in their work
• Appreciate how the style of a text can represent larger ideas of literary movements and genres

Expressing ideas and composing texts A

A student crafts personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by experimenting with and controlling language forms and features to shape meaning EN5-ECA-01

Writing

• Select and adapt appropriate codes, conventions and structures to shape meaning when composing written texts that are analytical, informative, persuasive, discursive and/or imaginative
• Develop a personal and informed voice that generates ideas and positions an audience through selection of appropriate word-level language and text-level features
• Experiment with language to create tone, atmosphere and mood
• Compose visual and multimodal texts to express complex ideas, using a range of digital technologies where appropriate

Speaking

• Select effective rhetorical strategies to position an audience and evoke an emotional response
• Communicate complex information, ideas and viewpoints using purposeful verbal and/or nonverbal language, including gestures, to emphasise key points, enhance engagement and clarify meaning
• Deliver spoken, signed or communicated texts with engaging use of intonation, emphasis, volume, pace and timing
• Participate in and lead a range of informal discussions about texts and ideas, including analytical, speculative and exploratory talk, to consolidate personal understanding and generate new ideas
• Use the structural conventions of analytical writing purposefully, including a well-articulated and considered thesis, a sustained and cohesive progression of supporting points, and a rhetorically effective conclusion
• Experiment with the process of transformation to create texts with new meaning
• Experiment with a range of poetic forms to explore ideas and express personal perspectives
• Craft concise sentences to suit text purpose
• Craft elaborated noun and/or verb groups for effect, clarity or complexity of description
• Apply punctuation to suit text purpose, support clarity and meaning, for effect, and to control reader response
• Select technical vocabulary to write with accuracy in a range of modes and registers appropriate to audience, purpose, form and context
• Use a variety of grammatical features to describe relationships between complex ideas
• Make vocabulary choices that enhance stylistic features of writing, and shape meaning through connotation

Expressing ideas and composing texts B

A student uses processes of planning, monitoring, revising and reflecting to purposefully develop and refine composition of texts EN5-ECB-01

Planning, monitoring and revising

• Engage with model texts to develop and refine features, structures and stylistic approaches in own work
• Develop an effective thesis for extended analytical and persuasive texts that is based on critical thinking about a text or topic
• Produce co-constructed complex texts to represent a diversity of ideas and values
• Select from a range of collaborative drafting strategies and feedback processes to improve clarity, meaning and effect in texts

Reflecting

• Reflect on own texts, using technical vocabulary to explain and evaluate authorial decisions appropriate to the target audience and specific purpose
• Discuss the pleasures, challenges and successes experienced in the processes of understanding and composing
• Evaluate the effectiveness of compositional choices in writing that have been influenced by elements of other texts, using specific examples
• Evaluate own ability to plan, monitor and revise during the composition process, and how this can improve clarity, cohesion and effect

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts