Cyber-Bullying Play WINNING JULIET Opens at Clayton High School, 4/26-5/4

Performances begin this week for Winning Juliet, the new cyber-bullying educational play produced by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. The plot focuses on a bullied girl named Julie who is afraid to audition for a part in the school play because of student harassment. She sends the director her audition tape -- Juliet's suicide scene -- in a YouTube link. The video is hacked and goes viral because her classmates think the video is real; Julie is expelled.

Public performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday (April 26-27) and May 3-4 at the Little Theatre at Clayton High School. Student matinees are scheduled at 9 and 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday, April 29 through May 3.

Reporters, photographers and camera crews are invited to the show. Director Emily Kohring and SFSTL Education Director Chris Limber (who co-wrote the play with Elizabeth Birkenmeier) are available for interviews. David Toretta, a long-time local composer and rock musician who is also Chuck Berry's producer, composed the music for Winning Juliet. Students participating in the show are from Grand Center Arts Academy, Clyde Miller Career Academy, Clayton High School, Crossroads College Prep and Webster Groves High School.

Call Mary McHugh for more information at 314/909-1603 or 314/910-1528.