After spending most of the morning taking state-mandated tests Tuesday, students at Union City’s Emerson High School on 18th Street received a break from their normal routine when they viewed “The Yellow Dress,” a play about teen dating violence and relationship abuse. The Union City Police Department, in conjunction with the National Institute of Justice COPS Office, hosted the hour-long program, which had been seen the previous day by Union Hill High School students. The drama has been performed in many American cities. At the end of the play, students are allowed to participate in a question-and-answer dialogue with performers and a panel of individuals who specialize in responding to relationship violence within Hudson County. Members of the panel included Dr. Alisa Smith, Ph.D. from Seton Hall University; Dr. Joseph Palenski, Ph.D., who is a professor of Criminology and Sociology at Seton Hall University, Sgt. John Annillo of the UCPD, and Nancy Schmidt, director of mental health at the North Hudson Community Action Corp. The one-person drama featured Kate Houston, a 30-year old actress, playing the part of “Cindy,” a high school student reflecting on a past relationship. With a spotlight on her, Houston described to an audience of 450 students how her relationship with her boyfriend “Ricky” started out sweetly and gradually deteriorated. Michael Hutchinson accompanied Houston’s performance by playing the piano, which created an appropriately eerie mood. At times, Houston asked the audience their opinion by a show of hands as to how she should respond to her boyfriend’s sexual advances. “I started doing whatever he wanted and we were together all the time,” Houston told the audience. “He’d put his arm around me like he owned me and called my friends to find out where I was when I wasn’t with him. It was cute. It felt good to belong.” But as the show progressed, Houston’s character became increasingly worried about her boyfriend’s behavior, which included physical and verbal abuse, and was scared to tell anyone about her predicament. Some audience members gasped in disbelief when Cindy, now ready for her prom night in a yellow dress stained with blood, described her boyfriend’s reaction when she refused to continue their relationship. “He kept smashing my head against the dashboard,” she said. “I don’t know if he meant to kill me, but now I’m gone. He pulled my body out, and threw me into a ditch and covered me with leaves and drove away. That was yesterday.” Hudson County Prosecutor Fred Theemling, UCPD chief Norman Baries and Mayor Rudy Garcia attended the performance. “The program is meant to prevent dating violence by identifying the warning signs of abusive behaviors, discuss how to help the victims and develop school and community awareness of the issue,” Garcia said. Most of the members of the audience said the message was clear and especially powerful because it dealt with real issues. “I know many boys that are like the one that was described here today,” said Yenneleinys Gonzales, a 10th grader. One junior who did not want to be identified said she thought the show was good because it had a meaningful message. “It was very informative,” the student said. “I feel it catches a lot of girls’ attention. I know a friend who has a brother that has beating her since she was young. He is diagnosed with a chemical imbalance.” Schmidt asked the audience to take down a hotline number for reporting abusive relationships and then provided statistics. “One woman is beaten every 15 seconds,” she said. “One-third of them are beaten by those who said they loved them. I’m not asking you to get angry, I’m asking you to get educated.” Sgt. Bill Peer of the UCPD walked around the gymnasium with a microphone to those with questions. One girl asked what triggers domestic violence. “It’s a learned behavior from home, from friends, from TV,” said Smith. “The reaction was pretty much what you expected,” said Hutchinson, adding that there are around 300 performances each year with three different versions for high school and college students and younger kids. The program was produced and directed by Deana’s Fund, a non-profit organization based in Woburn, Massachusetts. It was established in 1994 after the death of Deana Brisbois, a young woman from Woburn who was a victim of dating violence. After Deana’s death, her family and friends founded the organization that uses educational theater programs to educate and inform communities about dating violence. “The Yellow Dress” has been performed at the U.S. Congress and the National Students Against Drunk Driving Conference. The play reaches about 90,000 people each year.
Performance for high school students deals with abusive relationships
