An Adolescent Act

I recently worked with a theater artist to design and rehearse a play on digital violence with 10 young girls involved in Sadbhavna Trust’s leadership-building program. This was my first time working closely with teenage girls, a group navigating adolescence—a phase marked by physical, cognitive, and social changes. The participants were aged 16 to 20. This brought unique perspectives making the experience both insightful and meaningful.  

We designed the play on the topic of digital violence and the use of artificial intelligence, it’s impact on people especially young girls and their digital space. Upon discussion, we found that this was something that all the participants were aware of, either they had faced it or knew people who faced it. The audience of the play were parents, stakeholders and other participants of different programs.

What Unfolded?

My participation was throughout, from the initiation to the final performance and the entirety of those 12 days was a ride for me as well. I got to observe the changes, the coming together of the participants and transformation of an idea into a script and then action. This experience gave me insights into working with teenage girls. One day after a packed and stressful practice, the trainer commented that

“Inn ladkion ko kon seedhi sadhi kehta hai, inhe dekho kitni tez hai” (who says that these girls are simple and innocent, they are very clever)

This statement made me think about whether this frustration was due to the girls or the trainer’s methodology, leading me to look back at my own observations and various incidents that happened. The days were packed and the goal was set – to make the participants prepared for the final performance. However, the participant’s teenage carelessness regarding the roles among the participants was a major challenge that we were concerned about. At one point, the built-up frustration made me hopeless that we could prepare a play of such gravity in a short time. This also led me to explore more on the behavioral patterns of the participants and their perspectives. 

I Know … What I Am Doing

In the play the focus was on the expression, clear pronunciation, and delivering the message. People in Lucknow put a lot of emphasis given on ‘talaffuz’ – pronunciation of the words both Hindi and Urdu. During one of the rehearsals, the girl, playing the role of a teacher, was mispronouncing the sound ‘ph’ frequently. So, the trainer pointed it out to her and told her to correct the sound. But instead of understanding the difference between the two, she countered that she has been pronouncing it correctly as she has had specific classes for Arabic and Urdu and now was a teacher herself. This continued for about 15 minutes, with the trainer attempting to guide her on the correct pronunciation of various words, explaining the letter and phonetic sounds involved, but ultimately failing to help her grasp the difference.

He even mentioned that he did not mind the incorrect pronunciation, but since the play was set in Lucknow, the audience would likely notice. But all this was to no avail. Seeing this, a senior employee was called who then again told the same thing and told how tallafuz is important.The girl then agreed to change the way she was pronouncing. The entire thing took more than 20 minutes. This is a reflection of how teenagers believe that their perspective is the right one and often in conflict with everyone. 

All Eyes On Me

One of the participants, often seen as the ‘fun’ element of our sessions, had a tendency to carry humor a bit too far, even in moments when the act called for seriousness. As a result this hindered everyone’s process and time impacting the overall play. The trainer noted this behavior and addressed it on multiple occasions. It led to no change in her behaviour. However I noticed that whenever the trainer would scold she would look at her friend and give a glance gesturing that she is alright and cool.

David Elkind developed his theory of adolescent egocentrism explaining such behaviours. According to him, physical changes of puberty caused the teenagers to have more self-absorbed nature and differentiate between their idea and reality. Elkind developed the theory following Jean Piaget’s stages of development where he said that during this stage they develop ‘fully operational brain’ that is their cognitive abilities grow. Their new found ability of abstract thinking and focused on themselves, performing for an ‘imaginary audience’. In daily settings these are often their peers and friends. This makes them feel that others are constantly scrutinizing and misunderstanding them. 

A Medium – US Versus THEM

One day, during their post-rehearsal feedback session, some of the girls lowered their heads and started smiling and giggling as the trainer went on to explain how their roles were deeply serious and reflected the daily realities of the girls their age. This continued until he stopped and eventually the girls also realised. One of the older girls reacted by saying, ‘daat lijiye sir aap’ (you can/ should scold us sir). What I got from this was that the group expected that the trainer scolded them probably for feeling better himself or that there was a realization that they had done something wrong. 

This was reflective of the thinking process of teenage girls and how they showcase their notion of right and wrong. Instead of initiating some change in their approach for fulfilling the objective of the group, upon slight realization also it is not self-reflective but they see themselves as a medium for others to release their emotions. As the psychologist Carol Gillian outlined in her theory of moral development for females is not based solely on the abstract principles of justice but may develop it centered around caring and maintaining relationships.

The play had to be performed in the next three days, and seeing how things were progressing all of us were uncertain of success. The group dynamics emerged as an us versus them situation. It was as if the group had excluded the trainer and me and were just viewing us as a corrective agency who would scold them and point out their mistakes.

Changes

With this being the situation, the trainer gave no instructions and feedback for the next day, signaling me to give them cues and let the participants do the act on their own with whatever understanding they had developed about the settings and their respective characters. The participants began with confidence, but soon realized that some of their peers were falling behind or they themselves had missed a cue, fumbled their lines, or accidentally laughed during a serious scene. Others within the group then pointed out these moments.

Whenever they felt that someone had made an error, they would just stop and look at each other, then the trainer, as if waiting for him to tell them what they should do. The trainer, instead of guiding them, used to just tell them to repeat the scenes. By that evening everyone was tired and felt frustrated that they had to repeat scenes even if they individually did better. There was a self-realization of mistakes and it seemed that they had developed responsibility for each other and themselves regarding the play. 

Final Day

The last day of rehearsals went smoothly. The day of judgement had come, girls got the stage to themselves for the first time and were to perform to a diverse audience which included their peers, parents and artists. Their performance ended in a roar of applause and appreciation. Everyone commended the group as well as individuals on their act. The message also seemed to be delivered well. I felt really happy for all of us in successfully pulling this off. It was a proud moment for the girls doing their first theater performance and me handling the lights and music.

The changes in them from individual to group was really amazing to witness. I hoped that they would realise their own capabilities and the impact they have on the group, after their play. Since I am writing this after some time, I happened to meet the participants individually at different occasions following the day of the play. I saw a shift in some but some have remained the same, reminding me of existentialism which implies that everyone has their own pace and individual agency to decide what is their right time and freedom to choose their own paths.