‘The Real Deal’ on AIDS Prevention

There’s nothing subtle about the Los Angeles Teen Theatre’s hip-hop, nightmarish rap production of the AIDS-prevention drama “The Real Deal” at the Mojo Ensemble in Hollywood.

The uncompromising message delivered by a cast of young adults in their teens and 20s is that AIDS kills and unprotected sex and drug abuse are a direct route to the grave. Free to those age 17 and under, the 40-minute show is aimed at junior high and high school age youth.

Characters named Junky Jay (Tamekia McCloud), Sister Sly (Melissa McCloud) and Slo Bro (Jordan Black) pay for the error of their ways. Peaches (Keisha Hampton) and Paul (Adolph Coleman) are in love and tell disbelieving, jeering peers that they are still virgins and intend to stay that way until marriage. AIDS is portrayed as a predatory figure robed in black, topped by a fanged death’s head.

A mention of condoms--”make the boys wear socks!”--is tossed in, as is a dispelling of myths about how AIDS is transmitted, but the major emphasis is on abstinence and combatting peer pressure.

The earnest “rap opera” was written by Judi Ann Mason, an award-winning playwright and executive story editor for “I’ll Fly Away” and “A Different World,” and is the first production for the Mojo Ensemble Youth Theatre. Mason’s husband, actor Lanyard Williams, who directs, also wrote the music. Coleman did the hip-hop choreography.

The passion and commitment of the cast and the question-and-answer session held afterward give the melodrama its impact. All the actors, former Inglewood high school students who have been performing the show in schools for the past three years, have family members or friends or both who have died of the disease.

After a recent performance the actors told the audience that they still have friends who “don’t do the right things.” They acknowledged that their abstinence message turns some kids off--that’s not what young people generally get from either peers or the media--but others are relieved to know that it’s OK not to have sex.

Other issues the troupe has explored theatrically include race relations, teen-age pregnancy and drug abuse.

“The Real Deal,” Mojo Ensemble, 1540 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Saturdays, 4 p.m., indefinitely. $5 (age 17 and under, free); (213) 960-1604.

Noteworthy: “The Matsuyama Mirror,” a new children’s play by Velina Hasu Houston (“Tea”) drawn from an ancient Japanese folk tale, has been chosen to be part of the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices development project in children’s theater, based on a submission by East West Players. The play, which explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood, will have a reading at East West Players on June 8. Information: (213) 666-1929.