The Message That Went a-Begging

The unlikeliest rap master in Los Angeles was thinking about Gabriel Gettleson.

Gabriel is the 17-year-old student who was shot outside Chatsworth High School on Dec. 14 and left in critical condition after he refused to give up his backpack. Police have since arrested two of his alleged assailants, ages 17 and 14. The 14-year-old, police say, did the shooting.

This isn’t a gunman. This is a gunboy.

“They use these guns like drugs,” Mary Mann suggests. “It’s a temptation. It’s something that’s available that can momentarily enhance a person’s self-esteem.”

Mary Mann is a playwright first, a rap composer later. Mann figures she could write a play called “Shooting at Chatsworth High” or something, but she’s pretty much covered the theme. She wrote “Thugun and Natasha,” a play staged last summer at the Burbank Little Theatre, employing rap in hopes of reaching a young audience.

Listen:

I’m the biggest homey you can have on your side I work best from the window of a G-ride Honest folks are so terrified They pull the trigger with their phony pride They don’t know they’re on my side And soon they’ll be victim of a homicide. . .

The rapper is “Thugun”--a play on “Thug” and “The Gun.” Snoop Doggy Dog, who’s been accused of homicide, may sell more CDs. But when it comes to body count, Thugun outranks any gangsta.

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Mary Mann isn’t anyone’s idea of a rapper. Mann may not think these facts are particularly relevant to her art, but she is a middle-aged white woman who was born and reared in Australia and now lives in Burbank. In an earlier work she employed iambic pentameter to deliver an anti-war message. Now she finds herself more concerned with the warfare within Los Angeles.

“I thought, I have to reach these kids,” she says, “and the way to reach them was through rapping.”

Mary Mann is something of an optimist, which may explain why she had the gumption to rap in the first place. It also explains why, even after Christmas has come and gone, Mann finds herself looking for Santa Claus.

All she wants for New Year’s is . . . oh, $100,000 would be nice.

Wouldn’t it, though? That is how much that Mann and Estelle Busch, executive director of the Synthaxis Theatre Company, based in North Hollywood, are trying to raise in hopes of staging 200 performances of “Thugun and Natasha” in 80 Los Angeles schools.

It’s an ambitious plan for an ambitious little play. “Thugun and Natasha” does more than preach against gun violence. Based loosely on the March, 1991, slaying of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins by Korean-born grocer Soon Ja Du, Mann’s play also explores how the racial animosity, poverty, fear and violence itself all conspired to help Du pull the trigger.

When Synthaxis staged Mann’s play over the summer, the reviews were positive. The Times’ Lynne Heffley described the work as “involving and challenging” and praised “Mann’s clearly heartfelt eloquence.” When the company performed “Thugun and Natasha” before more than 200 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at the 24th Street Elementary School, the district’s Principals’ Preview Committee gave the play a rating of “excellent.”

The next step, Mann and Busch decided, was to put “Thugun and Natasha” on a tour of Los Angeles elementary schools. They envision the creation of a study plan that would put the actors in the classroom to help young students understand the point of the play. Students might be encouraged to write essays on alternatives to violence.

Scheduling the play was a snap. The message, obviously, was in great demand.

Raising the money has been something else.

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It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Mann and Bush started with the mayor’s office. An aide to Mayor Richard Riordan, they say, told them he thought their chances of funding were “very, very good.” In addition to the good vibes, they were given a letter of endorsement from Mayor Riordan, which they figured would open a few doors.

But when Mann and Busch approached various foundations, they were told, more or less, to get in line. Many worthy causes need money. They even tried the mayor’s letter with the Riordan Foundation--to no avail. Mary O’Dell, who serves as executive director of the foundation that Riordan established in 1981, explained that the organization specializes in literacy programs for young children.

“A lot of these foundations are hit for more social service grants,” explains Al Nodal, director of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department. Once upon a time, Nodal’s department might have been able to chip in. “We don’t have that kind of money any more. We’ve been bled to the bone.”

So what Nodal intends to do instead is sit down with Busch and Mann and try to find a way to trim costs. The fund-raising goal of $100,000 is based on an estimated cost of $450 per performance to pay the cast and crew.

Mann and Busch say Synthaxis will stage the play as often as possible, depending on funding. But if they don’t receive any money soon, they’ll have to start canceling scheduled performances.

They remain hopeful. They think that philanthropists or corporations might read this and step forward to help out. They envision five sponsors pitching in $20,000 each, adopting “Thugun and Natasha” for one month at a time.

Optimists think like that.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.