Anxiety, bullying and peer pressure are examples of just some of the challenges many middle schoolers face in their day-to-day life.

Mexico Middle School Drama Dawgs will be addressing these very real issues on stage in their production of “An Ex-SEL-lent Adventure” at 7 p.m. May 15. This collection by Debra A. Cole on social emotional learning includes three titles: “Metamorphosis”, “PANDAmonium” and “Breathe”

Sara Given, the driving force behind the after school drama club, retired from MHS last May. She has since found herself back in school, making costumes with her drama students once again.

“I haven't actually retired at all,” said Given, who led the MHS theatre department for 30 years.

She now spends her retirement working at Presser with adults with disabilities, elementary after school theater and most recently, drama club at MMS.

Drama Dawgs only just began in the second semester of this year. Given, with the help of her former student Ethan Wiley, and longtime colleague and friend Mel Hamm, has worked with Presser Arts Center and C2C to coordinate their upcoming production.

“We started with quite a large group,” said Given. “There were 25 or 26 of them who came regularly.”

But as the shows began to develop, some chose to drop out for a variety of reasons.

Given, Wiley and Hamm each took a play to direct and they have been meeting with their young thespians every Tuesday and Thursday in the MMS gymnasium from 3-4:30 p.m. to run lines, make costumes and practice.

Metamorphosis, directed by Given, tells the story of a young girl named Posie, played by Brooklyn Wieberg, who marches to the beat of her own drum, refusing to give in to peer pressure.

“Metamorphosis is about figuring out how to not be like other people and just being yourself,” said Brooklyn.

Brooklyn, who is in sixth grade, said she is excited for her role because she can really relate to her character.

“This shows that you don’t need to be like other people,” she said. “You only need to be yourself to be happy.”

Brooklyn is also in PANDAmonium, directed by Hamm. She is playing the role of Mama Panda, an intolerant bed and breakfast owner who only likes other panda bears.

“PANDAmonium is about discrimination and not discriminating against people based on their skin color,” said Sophia Hamm, who plays the role of Mama Grizzly.

Sophia, a sixth grader who is also in Metamorphosis, has seen the issues being addressed in her plays firshand in school.

“Sometimes some people say stuff they shouldn’t whenever it comes to race,” she said. “Also sometimes people are like, ‘Why are you wearing that?’ and it’s kind of mean.”

The third play, directed by Wiley is called Breath and it tells the story of a kid with anxiety who meets a frog who teaches him coping mechanisms to deal with his stress and anxiety. The main character Kirby will be played by Gabe Ulrich.

“I originally wanted to be somebody who would backstage and do sound and lights and other things like that,” said Gabe. “I got drafted into PANDAmonium and someone who was playing Kirby hasn’t shown up for the past few acts. When the role for Kirby came up, I volunteered.”

As someone who also deals with anxiety, Gabe feels a connection to his character. He said that the best way to deal with his anxiety is to talk to his peers and run the play through in his head.

The subject matter of the plays isn’t the only lesson these students are learning.

“The arts have a lot of impact,” said Given. “You’ll find an increase in test scores with kids who do the arts, whether it be art, music, dance, theatre band – all of those things are proven to improve test scores.”

Drama Dawgs is working to inspire young kids, boost their self esteem, provide them a healthy outlet and build a love for the arts.

“It’s a lot easier to be somebody else than to deal with our everyday lives so sometimes theatre is a great positive outlet other than things that teenagers could be doing,” said Given.

The Drama Dawgs production of an Ex-SEL-lent adventure will begin with a dress rehearsal at Presser May 14.

On May 15, Drama Dawgs will have two special elementary performances at Eugene Field and Hawthorne before they take the stage once more at Presser for the community production.