Sweet dreams' DVD premierpi

18/08/2011

A DVD of a play produced by local students which highlights the consequences of sexual violence has premiered at Prestatyn’s Scala Cinema and Arts Centre.

 

‘Sweet Dreams’ is a play which was written and performed by six drama students from Ysgol Emrys Ap Iwan in Abergele. It was initially put together to be performed at the launch of the SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) earlier this year, however it proved to be so impactive that the drama is now hoped to be used as an educational tool for teenagers.

 

Michelle Davidson Beck is the Domestic Abuse Lead Officer for Conwy and Denbighshire Community Safety and together with Sergeant Mel Brace of Community Safety Department worked on the idea which started in the autumn when Michelle provided a brief to the drama pupils.'

 

“We have worked closely with the students to produce a drama around the issue of sexual violence amongst young people with the focus on consequences and outcomes of non consensual relationships for both perpetrator and victim,” said Michelle. “The drama is fictional, however in reality this worryingly, is a major issue for young people in our very own locality.”

 

She added: “It is our intention to bring the filmed version of the drama into our schools to raise awareness to all young people of the consequences and effects of sexual assault on both the victim and perpetrator.”

 

Thanks to funding to the tune of £572 from the High Sheriff’s Crimebeat fund, the drama was able to be recorded to DVD so that many more youngsters will be able to benefit from the important key messages delivered in the piece. And last week the DVD was screened for the first time in front of an audience of invited guests and the students themselves at the Scala.

 

Her majesty’s Government Strategy on Violence against Women and Girls indicate that teaching of sexual consent should be part of the schools curriculum – understanding the meaning of consent in a sexual relationship will help young people make that distinction that NO means NO in later life.

 

Katy Bennett is one of the pupils who helped write and perform the play, playing the narrator and the victim’s mum in the production. They wrote the piece under the watchful eye and with the help of Kevin Jones, the Head of Drama at the school. Guidance and information was also given to the students by police and a number of partner agencies including NSPCC and the Crown Prosecution Service.

 

“We had a lot of fun making the DVD and putting the drama together, but it was quite stressful at times,” said Katy who added that they had worked on a number of scenes – some of which they decided not to use. “When it came to the filming, we spent a day filming and at the time we had no concept of what it was going to look like. I was really impressed, particularly with the editing.”

 

Teacher Kevin Jones added: “The project started in September and it went through lots of stages but was ready before it was actually needed,” Kevin explained that the project also served two purposes in that it was used as part of A Level course work where students are required to write and perform a play for a designated audience along with keeping a diary of the progression of the work.

 

It is not the first time that drama students at Ysgol Emrys Ap Iwan have worked on such projects, last year they produced a play entitled ‘Love hurts’ which was performed in front of an audience of around 160 professionals from the voluntary and statutory sector.

 

Superintendent Richard Brough, who was present at the launch said: “The drama is very impactive. Rape and sexual offences are very serious crimes. In 97% of all cases the victim and the offender are known to each other. The Criminal Justice System has become more professional in the way we deal with victims and offenders.

 

In North Wales we have a SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centre), we have specially trained police officers who deal with victims, specially trained investigators and the Crown Prosecution Service has specialist prosecutors.

 

Over the last few years we have seen a steady increase in the number of victims who have the confidence in the Criminal Justice System to come forward and report these offences.

 

However, where we really want to be is preventing these offences happening in the first place. The issue of consent is a very difficult message to get across and this DVD, which is both entertaining and powerful, will greatly assist us.”

 

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