‘Peace Child’ Show to Bring Its Message to Irvine Sunday

“We want a world of peace, where all people can be friends and not be fearful of our differences.”

That, in a nutshell, is the message that “Peace Child” hopes to convey. A family musical-cum-homespun peace movement show now touring the Southland, it features a 31-member cast of Soviet citizens, Americans and Australians between the ages of 12 to 18 and will make its Orange County debut Sunday night at Irvine’s South Coast Community Church.

“Peace Child” follows Sasha and Jennifer, a young Russian and a young American who meet when a choral group from the United States visits the Soviet Union. The Soviets and Americans form fast friendships and are later reunited at the U.N. where, at the end of the show, each character offers his own proposal for peace.

Wrapped around this story is the tale of “Peace Day,” a fictional holiday celebrating the day peace was declared around the world. It is the year 2025, and an adult storyteller (played by Anna Strasberg, widow of the famous Actors Studio director Lee Strasberg) spins the yarn of how peace was won with the help of Sasha, Jennifer and their friends.

Yura Plechko, 16, a native of Moscow, plays Sasha. The son of the Soviet Union’s ambassador to Malta, Plechko is one of 15 Soviet youths taking part in the “Peace Child” tour. He is hopeful that the play’s theme of understanding and friendship between children of different nations will someday influence world peace.

“The people who come to our shows, they get the message,” he has noticed. “You can see people crying in the audience.”

The story line has been adapted by the Southern California cast from the original “Peace Child” script, written in 1981 by David Woollcombe, a former BBC director, and based on Bernard Benson’s “The Peace Book.” The play premiered in London in 1981 and was presented at the Kennedy Center the following year.

The first cross-cultural performance of “Peace Child” took place in the summer of 1985 when 17 American children traveled to the Soviet Union to join a cast of Soviet children. The American and Soviet groups were reunited later that year for a PBS production. There are now 10 “Peace Child” casts touring in the Soviet Union, Poland, Central America and the United States.

“Peace Child” is presented through the auspices of the Peace Child Foundation, a nonprofit youth exchange program based in Fairfax, Va. According to Jeanette Norton of Irvine, a member of the Southern California chapter, the foundation’s purpose is “communication and the building of friendships.

“We are a youth cultural exchange group who use creative arts to teach nonviolent conflict resolution and to educate citizens,” she continued. “When people are friends and identify in a positive way with other countries, they can more accurately analyze information that’s given them. They are less susceptible to propaganda, in part because they have their own personal experiences to go from.”

Participants in the ‘Peace Child’ touring casts were chosen from hundreds of applicants worldwide on the basis of their personal beliefs and artistic ability. Thirty-one Southern California children are on tour this summer, including Norton’s 16-year-old daughter, Jacole, who is touring the Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic; Chris Allen, 16, of Irvine, who is visiting Kazakhstan Soviet Socialist Republic, and Laguna’s Antonio Aguilar, 16, who is traveling in Central America.

The Soviet teen-agers who will be on stage in Irvine were selected from a group of 80 schoolchildren from Moscow.

“Participating in the show gives the children an opportunity to learn about the issues, draw their own conclusions and find their own solutions to the problems raised,” said Norton, who holds a doctorate in social welfare and has been active in the peace movement for 25 years. “It’s empowering. It lets them say, ‘I can make a difference,’ and it gives them a platform to express their ideas.”

The cast members brought their ideas and personalities to the basic “Peace Child” script with the help of the foundation’s Peace Child Study Guide, which gives background on the issues raised in the play and offers suggestions for research and script revision.

“Peace Child” will be presented at the South Coast Community Church, 5120 Bonita Canyon Drive., Irvine, Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets: $7.50 to $50 (which includes admission to a cast party). Information: (714) 856-5000 or (714) 551-8070.