The Summit Church sanctuary was recently replaced with a spacious theater, strict bell schedule, and teenage thespians at the May 26th Southwest Florida Human Trafficking Coalition meeting.

Coalition members traveled to Cypress Lake High School’s Center for the Arts after learning of an initiative by drama students to raise awareness of human trafficking. During a training presentation, Nola Theiss of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships (HTAP) experienced a human trafficking play produced by a Canadian school. Ms. Theiss approached the theater program director at Cypress Lake, and asked if she could show the Canadian play to the 9th-grade theater students and ask them to write a similar piece. The students voted to take the project on over the course of the school year; they wrote a series of monologues and dialogues-several of which were performed for the Coalition-and entitled the finished project, "Selling Innocence." During the first year of production, students performed excerpts at HTAP events and at the school in April 2010. The group has since performed for high school- and middle school-principals, as well as at-risk teen groups and alternative learning facilities.

As six young actresses took the stage, there was an immediate transformation from teenage high school students to human trafficking victims. Through monologues and one dialogue, these young ladies described their individual "stories" of rape, abuse, torture, and kidnapping. One thespian told her heart-breaking experience of seeing her child abducted for organ harvesting; another conveyed her despair at being sold by her own mother to a trafficker, and yet another revealed the deceit of a boyfriend who drugged and forced her to have sex with his friends for money.

"We try not to sensationalize, but we don’t sanitize," says Ms. Theiss. While the play contained no overt descriptions of rape or cruelty, one could not mistake the horrors it intended to convey. The students performed as well-seasoned actors, whose conviction and passion for the topic were evident. Following the play, students were asked to describe their individual experiences with researching, writing, and performing. Each and every teenager present claimed to have been completely unaware of trafficking in the U.S. prior to this project. Miranda, a young woman involved in researching statistics for the play, said she could not believe the prevalence of modern-day slavery in her own backyard. Said actress Kristina of taking on the role of a trafficking victim, "Putting yourself in their shoes….it’s almost unreal." Other students claimed that their contribution has led to a heightened sense of caution in their day-to-day activities, as well as a strong desire to pass on their newfound knowledge to peers.

While the play has yet to be formally presented before the entire student body, it is evident that this method of raising awareness has been lacking in the modern abolitionist movement. The arts-whether through music, theater, or screen-have long been considered a formidable force in effecting change and bringing injustice to light. Whether war, women’s suffrage, poverty, or discrimination, the public has turned to the arts to gain awareness and develop opinions about modern social issues. Human trafficking is certainly no exception; books, such as Skinner’s A Crime So Monstrous, and movies, including Taken, have already captured audiences around the globe and driven communities to get involved.

However, it is imperative that the use of the arts for anti-trafficking purposes at the local level is not overlooked. The trafficking victim profile identifies young, middle- and high-school students from all socioeconomic strata as prime targets. Thus, it is only logical that trafficking awareness tools be specifically keyed towards this group, which is exactly what Cypress Lake has accomplished. Peer-to-peer instruction has consistently proven to be an effective teaching device, a fact that members of the anti-trafficking community must keep in mind when engaging in prevention. The Coalition sincerely hopes that this and other anti-trafficking plays will be developed across the country as powerful tools, exposing students to the reality and dangers of human trafficking.