THE WRITE STUFF FOR PLAYWRIGHTS

During the school year, Pamela Mshana gets up at 4 a.m., in order to catch the RTD bus from her Ontario home to attend the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts at Cal State Los Angeles.

On Saturdays she sleeps until 7 a.m., then ventures to the outskirts of downtown’s Skid Row where she attends a workshop for young aspiring playwrights like herself, sponsored by the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

“If you want something bad enough, you have to work for it,” Mshana said of her schedule.

A 16-year-old with the poise and maturity of a college student, she took third place last June in a nationwide arts competition for teen-agers sponsored by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

Her winning play, “A Toast to Leslie,” tells of a man driven to mental illness by his first wife and how his second wife suffers because of his problems.

“Pam is a talented young writer who is committed to her growth as a person and a writer,” said Robert Harders, founder of the young playwrights lab at the theater center. He found Mshana at the County High School for the Arts last September when he asked how many students would be interested in a weekend writing lab.

“Forty-five kids raised their hands and we originally split the workshop into two days,” said Harders. But with dropouts, the lab is down to seven regulars, ages 14 to 17, who meet for two hours each Saturday during the school year.

Designed to offer theater experience in directing, playwriting and acting, the workshop does more than provide the usual training situation.

“Ideally, if they can discover the pleasure of problem-solving in a creative situation, then they’re going to have fun for the rest of their lives,” Harders said. “If we discover that there are a couple of honest-to-goodness playwrights, it’s just icing on the cake.”

Playwright Marlane Meyer, who has been directing the lab for three months, believes the class provides a safe harbor where students can express themselves.

“I try to create a candid atmosphere where they can really talk,” she said. “You can’t speak the truth if you don’t trust your environment.”

Meyer, Mshana and three other teen-agers sat informally around a table in an LATC rehearsal room during a recent workshop. They critically examined each other’s latest writing projects, whose subjects ranged from the conflicts of a mother/daughter relationship to the life of a sadistic killer.

Mshana, who hopes eventually to attend New York’s Juilliard School, read a scene she had written from “Tough Love,” the story of a boy who lives under constant pressure to please his dissatisfied father. The group critiqued her:

“It was a moving piece.”

“You need to show what the boy wants to do.”

“The dialogue was natural.”

Despite the criticism from peers, Mshana said she feels comfortable in the workshop. “I enjoy the closeness. It lets me express myself. I’ve always been shy.”

Besides God, Mshana said her biggest influences are Harders and her drama teacher, Susan Starter.

“They teach me on a different level than most teachers,” she said. “They not only tell you the good things about acting, but also the bad things--and I respect that.

“Up to two years ago, I thought I wanted to become a poet,” she said, but winning admittance to the High School for the Arts, which she regards as her most significant achievement, changed her mind. Although she doesn’t have much time to socialize, the teen-ager, who has lived in the Pomona-Ontario area since birth, said she prefers it that way. “I’m kind of a loner. I’m not into partying all the time. You can go to parties, but you have to pay for it the next day.

“I try to listen to what my teacher says, hold on to it and use it. I didn’t know anything about drama until I came to this school. I thought I did,” she said, breaking into self-conscious laughter.