Stop Gap to Offer Free Performance on SCR Mainstage

In the old days, it seemed that Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters and the Wicked Witch of the West were about as close as children’s theater ever came to portraying evil. Well, look again. Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore.

Today’s young audiences face some pretty grim realities: date rape, drug abuse, the AIDS crisis and racial prejudice, to name just a few. With that in mind, the Stop Gap Theatre Company, a Santa Ana-based troupe, brings timely issues to junior high school students countywide via bite-size theatrical productions.

Monday night, Stop Gap will bring four original one-acts by playwright/actor/drama therapist Robert Knapp out of the classroom and onto South Coast Repertory’s Mainstage in a free public performance.

Victoria Bryan, who co-founded the troupe with Don Laffoon, says the program will include “When No Means No,” a frank discussion of date rape; “Under Pressure,” which deals with drug abuse among adolescents; “My Brother’s Keeper,” a look into emotional effects of the AIDS crisis, and the premiere of “Use My Real Name,” a piece that Bryan calls “an explosion of the stereotypes of racial prejudice.”

The 10-year-old Stop Gap company uses drama as an educational and therapeutic tool, Bryan said. In addition to its touring shows, the group offers about 15 drama workshops each week at such sites as the Orangewood Home for Dependent Children, Childrens Hospital of Orange County, senior citizen centers, and the Phoenix House drug rehabilitation center.

Through role playing and interaction with the Stop Gap cast, participants in the workshops are presented with non-threatening ways to address problems that range from poor self-image to coping with the death of a friend.

It was through workshops at the adolescent unit of Phoenix House that Knapp found the inspiration for “Under Pressure,” Bryan said. “Robert sometimes directs the kids in role-playing exercises that deal with what happened in their lives that led them to drugs. Ultimately, he wove their stories into a composite for the play.

“This play is unusual because it actually uses three of the kids from Phoenix House in the show. That’s a real strong point. It’s not just adults going into a school and saying ‘Drugs are bad.’ It’s kids’ own peers . . . acting in a play that shows what drugs did to their lives.”

An important part of Stop Gap’s program is post-performance discussion between the audience and the artists, Bryan said. “The whole premise is interaction. We rarely go in, do a show and say that’s it. The performance is actually a springboard into the discussion (where) we get a sense of what kids know and don’t know.

“We see a lot of misinformation. It really points to what education is needed.”

Bryan added that after the shows, the actors often engage students in improvisational scenes that further explore the theme of the play, a method that has helped students better explore the sensitive topic addressed in “My Brother’s Keeper.”

“AIDS is a subject that people don’t always want to face, so we sometimes have difficulty getting (the play) into the schools,” Bryan said. “There’s a lot of statistics going around, some correct, some incorrect. In the play, we address not only the information but the emotional side of the subject . . . we want the young people to understand the feelings behind it as well as the statistics.”

In “Use My Real Name,” three actors--white, black and Asian--swap ethnic backgrounds to demonstrate the importance of overcoming ethnic stereotypes, an issue that Bryan sees becoming increasingly important as Orange County becomes more culturally diverse.

Stop Gap’s productions of “Use My Real Name,” “Under Pressure,” “When No Means No” and “My Brother’s Keeper” will be presented Monday at 7:30 p.m. on the Mainstage at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Admission is free but reservations are required. Information: (714) 648-0135.