I was bullied, now I'm producing a play in NYC about it

My story, in general, is not unlike that of a lot of kids. I was small, shy and artistic and well…atypical as a kid, and that gained me some negative attention from aggressive kids and bullies. When I lived in Berlin, Germany as a child, I have a memory of a situation that has always stuck with me:
My family was friends with another military family who lived across a pond and a few streets from us. I was friends with their 3 kids but particularly their daughter Jenny. Even though I was a boy and she was a girl, our folks let us have sleep-overs at Jenny's because she had two beds in her room and we were so young. What I know now but didn't realize then was that her parents, though always really nice to me, were alcoholics. I was watching tv with Jenny one night when my dad called to get a carpool ride from Jenny's dad. Jenny's mom received the call and went to wake up her husband who was sleeping on the couch behind us. Her parents were both drunk and her father was really angry about being woken up. Well, not much time passed before Jenny's parents were yelling at each other, and soon after that, they were physically fighting. The fight involved Jenny's mom going at her dad with a kitchen knife before being knocked to the floor and bleeding from an injury on her leg. Her dad stormed out and drove away drunk in his car. Jenny, like a robot, and as if it's happened before, mechanically got up, made a cold water rag, and put it on her crying mother's leg. Jenny's blank facial expression was shocking to me. Her mom told me she was so sorry I had to witness that. I then wondered if Jenny's dad (or even mom) had ever been that way with Jenny or her brother and sister.
I wasn't really allowed to hang out at Jenny's house much after that but one day soon after, I saw Jenny and her brother on the street where we would play. At first we were chatting as we always did and then all of a sudden they attacked me and were saying horrible things and trying to push me to the ground and they ended up pushing me down a steep hill. They laughed and took off, leaving me in a gully really embarrassed and hurt. It seemed completely unprovoked. I realized years later that this behavior from them was probably just them acting from a place of shame. They were acting out against me because it was probably done to them. They were bullying me as part of a cycle of hurt and embarrassment.
I've long gotten over my bullying scars from childhood and have had good success as an actor and writer in NYC. My friend Greg wrote a wonderful play called Rated M for Mature that I was fortunate enough to be in the first reading of. He was inspired by news stories of kids who act out violently towards their parents (and others) because their video games or computer consoles were taken away because their grades were suffering. The play speaks of parent-child communication and mis-communication, bullying, and our current technology's affect on kids and how the cyber world can be an escape and a battleground. Though this sounds serious, it's also full of wonderful humor.
While watching the recent film documentary, BULLY, I turned to Greg with tears in my eyes and said "we have to produce Rated M for Mature'. Well, we were accepted to the NY Fringe Festival for this summer! I think this is such a funny and touching and important play and we're thrilled to bring it to audiences this August and hopefully presenting it on a larger scale in the very near future.

Thank you for reading and let's keep communicating and end the cycle of bullying!

Ryan

Runyoncal, kids are influenced by what they see adults doing. It sounds to me as though those kids, having seen their father acting aggressively towards his wife, were copying behaviour and taking it out on you. Fortunately for you, kids aren't as strong, and you were able to come out of it and make a success of life. Well done.

Thank you Trojan, I really appreciate it.
Anyone interested in checking out our Kickstarter page can easily Google it. Rated M for Mature by Greg Ayers. I think posting the link read like spam on here.

RunyonCAL