Group Home Teens to Stage Play as Tribute

When Donald Dean Haynes died suddenly in September, he was putting the finishing touches on a play about the trials and triumphs of teenagers living in a residential treatment facility.

As president and executive director of the Calabasas Residential Treatment Center, Haynes had firsthand experience in dealing with teenagers suffering from the effects of drug addiction, alcoholism, abandonment and emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

Haynes, who died at age 38 of a heart aneurysm, hoped the play, “GROUP: Life of a Teenager in the Foster Care System,” would heighten public awareness about the plight of victimized teens.

The play will be performed at 7 tonight and Saturday at The Onion Coffeehouse on the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society campus, 9550 Haskell Ave., North Hills. Admission is $5.

“This was Mr. Haynes’ dream,” said Antonio Martin, who took over as executive director at the Calabasas center. “He wanted to let the community know about the types of kids and situations that we deal with at the center.”

With Haynes’ sudden death, however, the center teens who were to act in the play weren’t sure if the show should go on. After much discussion, Martin said, the teens decided to honor Haynes’ legacy by staging the play.

The play opens with teens in a simulated group session, Martin said. The three boys and five girls relate the joy and pain of group-home living through a series of vignettes.

“The characters talk about family history, peer pressure, parental neglect, gangs, drugs and sexually transmitted diseases,” said Laron McCloud, program coordinator at the center. “Each scene depicts different moods and emotions.”

The actors also sing inspirational songs, McCloud said, such as the R&B; hit “I Believe I Can Fly” from the “Space Jam” movie soundtrack, and the traditional Christian children’s song “Jesus Loves Me.”

“In society there are children who are neglected. . . . Life has dealt them an unfair hand, through no fault of their own,” McCloud said. “Even though they are in the [foster care] system, they still need love and compassion. That was Mr. Haynes’ message.”