SPIDER IMPACT TOUR
In-School Performance & Workshop
“in this spiderweb,
I see the world.”
"Baby Spiderman KILLED EVIL Spider!” blows up on YouTube Kids. A rogue program escapes the Simulation — in a video game called Awakenings. And a choir prepares to sing with one voice. When a school shooting reveals the delicate web connecting these events, the people tangled within it start to wonder: who’s to blame? Written by an alumni of the YP Company, this powerful new play about iPad kids, collective trauma, and what we trust AI to do will stick with you long after the final bows.
Funded in part by the Oregon Department of Education, the SPIDER Impact Tour’s mission is to bring meaningful and authentic teen works to high schools, to facilitate important conversations around topics that matter to teens, and to support ongoing mental health needs of young adults.
What to Expect
A pre-show collaborative training session with educators
A 50-minute live performance for up to 250 students
Post-show Q & A and Talkback session with cast and production members
Post-show, small-group workshops reflecting on and processing the themes of the play
A leave-behind resource guide for educators to help facilitate more conversations and provide mental health support
About the impact tour
SPIDER shines a light on the profound issues that affect teens today: social media pressures, the threats of Artificial Intelligence, gun violence in schools, and personal identity. The SPIDER Impact Tour offers insight into these relevant, often overwhelming issues in a powerful performance for teens by teens. Additionally, the Impact Tour offers mental health resources and tools for students and educators, centered on building interpersonal communication skills and enhancing processing skills around challenging topics. The SPIDER Impact Tour will:
Harness the power of the arts as a therapeutic and educational tool.
We use the power of theatre as an engine to generate empathy, and to help youth have the experience of walking in someone else’s shoes. We use theatre as an outlet for complex emotions and as a communal healing tool to bring the community closer to one another.
Give youth access to supportive adults and peers.
Having supportive adults in their lives is one of the key protective factors for youth of all backgrounds: while a loving family is the number one determinant of young person’s mental health, having supportive mentors and teachers can also make a huge difference. By creating an opportunity for youth, teachers, and families to come together and engage in meaningful conversations we are addressing teen mental health holistically and at multiple levels.
Educate youth and their communities about intersectionality.
No one community is a monolith. All of our work approaches personal identity as intersectional. We are teaching youth and their communities about how to look at others—their skills, personalities, issues, and challenges—as multifaceted. In developing a deeper understanding of intersectionality individuals are able to better empathize and understand the community around them.
Help youth, teachers, and caregivers know how to build supportive community spaces.
By providing comprehensive resource guides, one-on-one training, and promoting awareness about the issues addressing today’s youth, we are helping to build supportive and safe environments. We are teaching youth how to advocate for their needs, helping adults have a better understanding of the challenges they are facing, and providing a framework for safe, meaningful, and impactful conversations.
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The tour will include:
A pre-show collaborative training session that helps participating educators have a better understanding of the challenges teens are facing and providing a framework for safe, meaningful, and impactful conversations
A 50-minute live performance for up to 100 students
20-minute post-show Q & A and talkback session facilitated by cast and production members
A small-group, post-show workshop for all attending students and their teacher facilitated by an OCT Education staff member (segmented by classroom; approximately 45 minutes or one classroom period) utilizing the SPIDER Resource Guide to lead students in meaningful reflection
Educators will be provided with a copy of the SPIDER Resource Guide to help improve their abilities to provide mental health support and strengthen communications with their students
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This touring version of SPIDER has been edited for school audiences; however, this play has mature language and themes, and contains a dramatic interpretation of a school shooting.
We highly recommend that letters be provided to the students' families to share content warnings and support materials. OCT will provide a template for this letter to the booking teacher.
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This program is currently being piloted; if you would like to bring the SPIDER Tour to your school please contact Director of Education Blake Wales. Booking for all schools will become available in January 2025.
Due to its sensitive content, we are requiring educators to read and familiarize themselves with the script of the show prior to booking. To request access to the script please click here.
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Booking will be available in January 2025. Performances will occur February 17–March 7, 2025.
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Due to mature content and language SPIDER is recommended for high school students grades 9–12.
Audience size is limited to a maximum of 100 students. We strongly advise that Grades 9 and 10 have separate performances from Grades 11 and 12. If you are interested in booking for groups larger than 100 students please contact us directly.
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Estimated run-time for the performance is 50 minutes with a 15-20 minute Q&A following the performance.
The post-show workshop will last the duration of one class period and OCT Education Staff will facilitate multiple workshops throughout the school day to accommodate the number of students who attended the performance.
Please note that the performance minimally requires an 18’ deep by 24’ wide space to perform.
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This program is currently being piloted and further cost information will be announced at a later date. If you would like to bring the SPIDER Tour to your school please contact Director of Education Blake Wales.
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Refunds for in-school programming will be provided with 2 weeks notice prior to the first classroom session. Refunds will not be provided with less than 2 weeks notice. Full payment is required prior to the first planning meeting or no later than 2 weeks prior to the start of the program. In the event a payment has not been made at least 2 weeks prior to the first class start or a planning meeting has not been scheduled, OCT reserves the right to cancel the booking request.
In the event OCT needs to cancel a full classroom residency, full refunds will be provided. If an individual class session needs to be cancelled by OCT or the school, OCT will make an effort alongside the school to re-schedule the class session. If re-scheduling a class session is not possible, OCT will provide a refund for the value of the class session(s) that were missed. Any changes to residencies made by the school must be requested at least 2 weeks prior to the first class date.
Praise for Spider
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[The YP Company's] great work in this show bodes well for the future of Portland theatre, while the play itself gives me hope that the world of tomorrow might contain a lot more empathy and kindness than we have today... If you are a teenager, have a teenager, or want to know more about what it’s like to be a teenager right now, definitely go see it.
Krista Garver, Broadway World
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Lots of works of art tackle subjects like media saturation and school shootings, but few do so with the nuanced sympathy, curiosity, or wisdom of SPIDER. This play highlights the uncomfortable ways that both YouTube sensations and school shootings are glamorized briefly by the media, then forgotten. This is a play that you cannot just walk away from after reading or seeing, and that is a blessing.
Anna Tatelman, New Play Exchange
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The Young Professionals Company bravely explores what it means to be a teen in a time of screens, algorithms and very real emotions... visiting and revisiting each set of characters allowed us to experience the heavy load they all carry—collectively and individually—and the moments that will shape this generation and forge its path ahead with both uncertainty and hope.
Jade Chan, PDX Parent
About the Playwright
Madeleine Adriance is a playwright, book writer, lyricist, and educator who grew up in Guatemala City and Portland, Oregon. She recently graduated magna cum laude with honors from Brown University, receiving a BA in Theater. Her plays include SPIDER (commissioned by the Young Professionals Company) and The Living Ones (Finalist, Lanford Wilson Festival of New American Plays). She has also written the book for the musicals Dendroo! and Cheesy Love Songs, both produced at Brown University. At Brown, she was selected to participate in the Graduate Playwriting workshop lead by Julia Jarcho, and her play The Living Ones was awarded a departmental production with mentorship from Lisa D’Amour. In 2023, SPIDER was named the “most impactful” show of the fall by BroadwayWorld. Honors include being a winner of the Horizon Theater New South Young Playwrights Festival, the S.R. Steinfeld Award at Brown University, and a Fulbright grant. madeleineadriance.com
Check out an interview with Madeleine about the show’s development with the Young Professionals here, and listen to an interview with OPB’s Think Out Loud here.
