At-Risk Teens Reach a New Stage in Play

Walk into the old cafeteria at the West Valley Community Education Center and discover a makeshift stage.

Talk to the thespians as they run through their scenes, and you learn that most are troubled teenagers, referred from Juvenile Court and continuation high schools, who have been transformed into paid actors.

Tonight, after two months of intense daily rehearsals that often stretched to five or six hours, these young people will appear in “The Shattered Mirror” at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park.

The play, which runs through Sunday, was commissioned by L.A. Theatre Works Arts and Children Project and written by Jose Guillermo Garcia, a playwright from New Mexico.

“The Shattered Mirror” is the story of a suicidal Latina from the inner city who is visited by the ghost of Anne Frank and discovers she is the reincarnation of Anne’s imaginary pen pal, Kitty. She posts a letter on the Internet expressing her isolation, pain and rage, with surprising results.

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The most ambitious project to date by L.A. Theatre Works Arts and Children Project, the play kicks off a year of tolerance activities in Los Angeles County court schools. Although the theater group has done similar projects, this is the first time it is taking troubled teens into a professional, public setting.

The Tolerance Project is funded by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the California Arts Council and other agencies.

Since late March, the teens in “The Shattered Mirror” have worked with professional actors to perfect their performances and build sets. The mentors--who have theater, television and film credits--include actors Maria Beck, Jorge Jimenez and Armando Ortega, production designer Roger McCoin and choreographer Licia Perea.

Many of the teens are on probation, and the project’s organizers said they hope to give the young actors something to do after school, build their confidence, teach them professional acting skills and help them develop emotionally.

“Our goal is not to create movie stars,” said Gail Cohen, the project’s director.

Instead, she wants young people to learn commitment and responsibility.

Garcia began an actors’ workshop in late March with about 10 students. Within several weeks, most had dropped out and organizers were forced to recruit more students.

Even after roles were cast, Garcia had trouble getting students, whose participation is voluntary, to attend rehearsals regularly. By the end of May, Cohen estimated they had run through 30 to 40 kids. Only one student from the original workshop will appear in the final production, Garcia said.

“Kids fall away because the pull of their old life is so strong,” Cohen said. “We have to devote a lot of resources to keeping them.”

Their motivations for participating in the project vary. Daniel M., 16, wants to be a professional actor. Larry, 17, wants to stay busy and out of trouble.

Marion Sohaili, 15, who attends continuation school and hopes to graduate early, was told by friends that she has a flair for drama. Daniel L., 17, wants the money and the community service hours he will earn.

The complex play requires them to perform music and dance, as well as act. The character Kitty is representative of many of the young people acting in the play, Garcia said. Her father is in prison for gang activity and drugs, and her brother is following in his footsteps. Her boyfriend is black, and her mother, with whom she does not get along, does not approve of the relationship.

Many of the young people may not know who Anne Frank was or understand the point of the play. But they identify with Kitty.

“What Kitty’s going through--I know a lot of people who are going through that kind of stuff,” said Daniel M., who plays a guard who beats people up in one scene and a cop who kills in another. “A lot of my brother’s friends died from gangs. It’s a picture of life as it is.”

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Garcia said he wanted the play to reflect his young actors’ lives. But he also wanted to expose them to the world outside their own experience.

“I wanted to show that the hate, despair, and intolerance Kitty feels are not just with one culture or one neighborhood or one race,” he said. “They happen to everyone all over the planet.”

A week before the play was scheduled to open, the young actors seemed worn out but inspired. The scenes were coming together, but there was still much work to do. Rehearsals were getting longer, often running to 8:30 or 9 at night.

Marion, who plays Kitty, said she was rehearsing so many hours that the only time she saw her mother was in the car--driving from school to rehearsal, to her job at an ice cream shop and home again.

Daniel L., who had mastered his lines, just wanted to sleep. He said he was tired of having no life, no time to see friends or go on dates.

Larry, 17, had recently missed three days of rehearsals because he got in a fight. Under his makeup was a blue bruise around his left eye.

The young men were excited, but stage fright was starting to creep in.

Daniel L. prayed that no one he knows will be in the audience. Larry said he has not invited anyone to attend because it would be too embarrassing. Daniel M. has invited his family, but there is no way he wants his friends to come.

“You know how friends are,” he said. “They just make fun of you.”

Garcia laughed at their reactions.

“It’s the whole issue of machismo for them,” he said. “And peer pressure. The things we gave them to do, they were resistant to. They were forced to show emotion, to physicalize things, outside of a very narrow way. Usually they wear a social mask, and we had to break that down.”