Wednesday, 4/23/97 L.A. youngsters write plays, supervise their
production Virginia Ave. Project designed to give kids inspiration,
training
By Stephanie Sheh Daily Bruin Contributor College students think
writing essays and papers are tough. Try writing a play in only two
days. But that is exactly what eight children, ages 6 to 18, did
when creating "On the Job," a collection of their plays which will
be presented at Barnsdall Arts Park’s gallery on Friday and
Saturday. "On the Job" comes from the Virginia Avenue Project’s
play- making program. Kids go through a nine-week playwriting
workshop and are assigned two professional actors and one
professional director. The child interviews his or her actors and
the director and then goes away for a weekend. The director acts as
the kid’s mentor as the child writes the play. The Virginia Avenue
Project is a program patterned after the 52nd Street Project in New
York, which puts kids who are growing up at risk together with
professional writers, directors and performers to create several
different evenings of theater. The program uses the arts as a tool
to teach the kids about life. "We work with a small number of kids,
because we work one-on-one with them," explains Leigh Curran,
artistic director of the project. "We work with them for many
years, so the impact we have on their lives is very profound. "I’d
say that we are one of the top arts-education programs in Los
Angeles, if not the top arts and education program, and that word
education is very important." Curran worked at the 52nd Street
Project for nearly four years before she moved to California to
start the Virginia Avenue Project. She says that she’s noticed a
significant difference between the confidence of the kids in the
project and other children she knows. "Their demeanor, their
self-confidence level raises up," Curran notes. "Now when that
happens, your imagination expands and you begin to think creatively
about your life. You begin to see your life as a positive thing and
not as a thing that is going to defeat you, or a thing that’s too
hard. And that reflects in the schoolwork." Cassandra Teofilo, a
13-year-old playwright, agrees. "It keeps me out of trouble a lot
too. It helps me gain confidence, learn about who I am too, but
it’s also what I want to do too, to just write and then act." In
addition to bolstering confidence, the program proves helpful in
many other respects. Teofilo admits that the writing has helped her
grammar in English classes at school. Curran expands: "Just through
the process of writing, their spelling skills improve, their social
skills improve, their ability to speak in front of people
improves." Actress Roma Maffia ("Profiler"), who has been involved
with the Virginia Avenue Project for about two years and was
involved with the 52nd Street Project previously, agrees that the
arts are a very effective educational tool. "I think it stimulates
a lot of thought … it’s multipurpose," Maffia says. "It’s
learning how to collaborate and how to assert an idea. It just
covers many ways to communicate. So it’s a great learning tool and
the focus is not about making these children into actors." "This is
not a program to develop actors and writers," Curran stresses. "It
is a program to use the arts as tools to raise self-esteem. We
don’t invite casting directors to shows. If somebody called up and
said, ‘I saw somebody in the show and can he come in and audition
for this movie?’ … If his mother wanted to take him, fine, but I
don’t pursue that in any way, shape or form." In fact, Teofilo
wants to be involved in the police force when she gets older. She
incorporated this desire into her play by writing a play about two
detectives. The play, titled "Hidden Love," is about two officers
who like each other but are unaware of their mutual affection. The
subject matter of the various plays are wide-ranging and may be a
little surprising. Curran notes that the children do not write or
perform at a child’s level. One play by an African American child
features a ladybug and a minister pincher bug. The pincher bug
won’t let the ladybug into his church because he doesn’t like the
color black. Another play is about a married couple. The father
moves the job into his house so that he can be with his wife and
child. However, his wife won’t give up her work and the father ends
up taking care of the child. They never see each other and the play
is about the struggle between home and work. "The plays are not
what maybe one would consider typical children’s plays, because I
think that they’re very real," Maffia comments. "I mean, some of
the plays that these kids write are some of the most real things
that I have ever read. They are the most imaginative things I’ve
ever read, covering a lot of areas from racism to abuse to things
that are totally fantastical. So there’s no way to categorize these
plays other than they deal with a lot of what we call ‘adult
issues.’" Although the children write the play and do not perform
in it, this does not mean that they do not attend rehearsals or do
not have interaction with the actors and directors. "There’s a lot
of interaction having to do with whether or not the writer likes
the translation of the play they wrote," Maffia explains. "Or to
find out specifically what they meant and if they like the way the
characters are going, if it’s what they imagined." Maffia herself
enjoys this interaction. She says that in working with children,
the production becomes a lot more creative and a lot less
pressured. She also says that the process is more of a
collaboration. Teofilo shares Maffia’s enthusiasm. "Oh, (rehearsals
are) really fun, every day it gets better and better. It was better
than what I wanted. "Every day, we find something new, that’s good
or bad, and then we change it. There’s a lot of hard-working kids
who do their best, and they do it to entertain themselves, but
mostly to entertain other people." THEATER: The Virginia Avenue
Project showcases its young playwrights in "On the Job" Friday and
Saturday at the Barnsdall Arts Park’s gallery. Tickets are free;
reservations are required. For more information, call (310)
330-8860.