Kids See Their Lives in ‘West Side Story’

You wouldn’t expect kids growing up among rival street gangs with names like “Avenues” and “Atwater” to be impressed by musical-revival gangs named the “Jets” and “Sharks.”

But you don’t know youngsters at Fletcher Drive Elementary School.

Children from the campus in Glassell Park took in a road show production of “West Side Story” on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning they huddled with actors from the Pantages Theatre cast to talk about contrasts between gang violence on the stage--and on the street.

Fourth- and fifth-graders at the school located two miles north of Dodger Stadium know plenty about the real thing.

Their neighborhood is surrounded by rival gangs whose turf is staked out by monikers scrawled on fences and walls that stretch for blocks in all directions. Many of their older brothers or cousins are active gang members or serving time for gang-related offenses.

Former Fletcher Drive pupils include gang member David Alvarez, charged in a murder rampage last year that left four dead; Marvin Pech, charged in the 1995 “wrong-way murder” of 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen, and Hugo Gomez, who was found guilty last week of Kuhen’s murder.

So the 110 children watching the fictional “Jets” fight the make-believe “Sharks” took the 40-year-old Broadway musical very seriously indeed.

“It was an old-fashioned story. But it was realistic,” said Jorge Castilleja, an 11-year-old who says he sometimes wishes he wore his school uniform (white shirt, navy blue pants) all of the time in Glassell Park.

“The gangsters might shoot you if you wear baggy pants and they think you’re from another gang,” Jorge explained. “On the streets you see people getting killed. It’s good to know that in the play people were just acting.”

Classmate Moses Avelino agreed.

“When you’re acting you don’t kill people like real people do,” said Moses, 10. “I’ve seen two people killed on the street. One with a knife. One with a gun. It’s sad.”

The Pantages production has both types of murders.

Actor Kevin Albert portrays Sharks gang leader Bernardo--who is stabbed to death in a gang fight. Actor Jeremy Koch plays Jets gang leader Tony--who is fatally shot in the show’s finale.

At Wednesday morning’s meeting in the school auditorium, Albert reminded youngsters that his character could have avoided being killed.

“If I took myself out of that situation, I wouldn’t have been stabbed,” Albert said. “If people had taken themselves out of that situation, no one would have died.”

Koch pointed out a deadly element of the show’s plot.

“A big part of this play is the revenge factor. I’m sure you guys have seen that,” he told the children.

Actress Sharen Camille, who plays Maria in the show, told of how she stayed out of trouble herself growing up in St. Louis.

“My mom said I could always use her as an excuse to say no” if others encouraged her to join in with the wrong crowd, she said.

Houston native Michelle DeJean, who portrays Anita in the musical, agreed. “I certainly had people trying to pull me the wrong way when I was young. You have to stay on the right path: Don’t let people pull you off--sometimes you can get lost.”

That advice resonated with pupils such as 11-year-old Vianey Alvarado.

“My uncle was walking down Drew Street and someone shot him,” Vianey explained. “They thought he was in another gang.”

Listening as the children spoke was Los Angeles Police Officer Catherine MacWillie. She does anti-gang work at Fletcher Drive School and other nearby campuses and attended the Pantages show with the youngsters.

“The play wasn’t even in the same league with what they see in the neighborhood,” MacWillie said. But it may have given some of the children a chance to reflect on the gang lifestyle: “There was no anger or intimidation at the theater,” she said.

Principal Mary Shambra said youngsters were quiet on the bus ride back to Glassell Park after the show.

“I jumped at the sound of the gunshot in the play. But I noticed most of you didn’t,” she told the students. “The fact is you hear gunfire all the time, especially on weekends.

“This is not about ‘West Side Story.’ It’s about who we are. Us in this room.”

Because there are Jets--and Sharks--outside.