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With the help of a smartphone and Twitter, university collaborators show kids how Shakespeare instructs us on school bullying

The University of Colorado is pursuing a more-civil society with this simple recipe: Take one Shakespearean play, one group of youngsters and a mendacious tweet. Mix well. Add role-playing and discussion.

Simmer one hour. �մǾ���à: a palatable lesson about how to spot and stop bullying. Serves hundreds.

In their first-ever collaboration, CU-Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival have taken this fare to more than two-dozen Colorado schools.

In K-12 schools along the Front Range this fall, Shakespeare festival actors have performed a short version of “Twelfth Night,” which features the prolonged tormenting of the character Malvolio.

After each performance, the actors led workshops with discussions about what bullying is, why it flourishes and how to quell it.

“Twelfth Night” includes a familiar comedic plot of happily resolved mistaken identities. But it also features the merciless tormenting of Malvolio, a haughty steward who treats his peers with disdain.

The victims of his mistreatment conspire to humiliate him. One forges a letter (a tweet on an iPhone in the CSF production) that makes him believe that the Countess Olivia loves him. The faked message urges him to act bizarre and refuse to explain himself. He takes the bait.

Olivia thinks he has gone mad, and Malvolio is locked in a small, dark room, where a supposed priest affirms Malvolio’s alleged madness. The practical joke goes on far too long, and by the time Malvolio is released, he swears he’ll be revenged “on the whole pack of you.”

“The Malvolio story line, along with the letter the characters plant for him to find, gives us great ways to talk about contemporary issues like cyberbullying,” said Amanda Giguere, literary manager for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

“Kids and teens will relate to this story because they’ve probably witnessed something similar in school.”

Kids did relate, especially when the youngsters acted (and translated into modern English) some key lines from the play. Joan Dieter, an actor and CU alumna, led a post-performance class discussion at Crest View Elementary School in Boulder.

Dieter asked kids to translate the lines and prodded them to identify instances of bullying.

In the bard’s version, for instance, Malvolio tells Sir Toby Belch, “I must be round with you. My lady is very willing to bid you farewell.”

In modern terms, the class agreed, Malvolio is trying to bully Toby out of Olivia’s house.

Chastising Maria for behavior he dislikes, Malvolio says, “My lady shall know of it.”

“I’m going to tell on you,” one student translated.

Having hatched their practical joke, Sir Andrew exclaims, “O, ‘twill be admirable!”

“This is going to be great,” another student translated.

At Dieter’s instruction, the class also played the roles of kids with confidence ranked on a 1-10 scale. Kids asked to walk around the classroom as if they were a confidence-lacking 1 lowered their heads, shuffled their feet, avoided eye contact and inadvertently bumped into each other.

“Now you’re a 5,” Dieter instructed. Kids moved more easily and comfortably, making eye contact.

“Now you’re a 7,” Dieter said, asking the students to move about in that persona. They did, with gusto, exchanging friendly greetings and high-fives.

“Being a 7 feels great,” Dieter observed. But what’s it like to be a 10?

That was like Malvolio’s demeanor in the play’s beginning, and that, the students agreed, was overly confident. A kid acting like a 10 pestered other kids, particularly if the others were lacking confidence at 1. But when a self-assured kid at 7 met a bully at 10, the potential victim had enough confidence to challenge the bully or walk away.

Dieter emphasized that bullies can be stopped. “Tell a teacher. Talk to a friend. Talk to someone,” she said. “You have the choice, and you have the ability to act.”

But acting doesn’t mean that kids need to endanger themselves. Dieter offered another option, an anonymous bullying hotline called Safe2Tell. That service is operated by a nonprofit group in Colorado. It refers anonymous reports to school officials and law-enforcement officers.

Safe2Tell says it’s fielded nearly 3,600 reports since 2004 that resulted in “investigation, early intervention and prevention.”

According to the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, nearly 15 percent of U.S. students in grades 9-12 are involved in a physical fight on school property. Like Malvolio, many attackers feel bullied, persecuted or injured before their attacks.

“Making children and teachers aware is the first step in preventing bullying, and this play is an exciting, innovative way to accomplish this,” said Delbert Elliott, distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

“The workshop provides practical, evidence-based resources for addressing this serious problem.”

School bullying can cause long-term harm to victims and bullies, Elliott said.

The project is funded in part by a CU-Boulder Outreach Award and the Arts and Sciences Community Involvement Fund. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of the CU-Boulder Institute of Behavioral Science.

For more information on the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, see . For more on the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, see . Safe2Tell can be reached at 877-542-7233 or .