On a darkened stage, shadowy figures move about arranging props. The lights beam down on a spot off to the side of the stage, where 12-year-old Jason Reed sits at a desk. As some hip-hop music starts to play, Jason begins swaying in his seat. The stage lights go on, and Yale School of Drama students Liz Adams and Patti Lewis begin to perform their respective roles as a gopher and a snake whose animosity turns to friendship in a play called "The Love of a Mother and a Daughter." Off to the side, Jason watches the actors, often silently mouthing the characters' words.
Jason has eagerly awaited this moment, when the spotlight is equally upon him and the two actresses. He knows the lines by heart because "The Love of a Mother and a Daughter" is a play that he wrote himself, and having it performed before an audience by professionally trained actors is an accomplishment that makes him very proud.
Jason is one of eight youngsters from the Troup Middle School who shared the spotlight during performances of their own plays by the Yale drama students on July 10. The children are participants in this year's Dwight Edgewood Project, a School of Drama community outreach program aimed at introducing youngsters who live in the Dwight Street Edgewood Avenue neighborhood to the theater. Among the audience members at the evening performance were the youngsters' family and friends, whose hoots and cheers could be heard at the end of each 10-minute play, and who gave both the Troup and Yale students a hearty standing ovation at the conclusion of the shows.
The Dwight Edgewood Project began last year under the sponsorship of the School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre. Stan Wojewodski Jr., dean of the drama school and artistic director of the Yale Rep, and Victoria Nolan, the Rep's managing director, wanted to replicate at the drama school an outreach program in New York City called the 52nd Street Project, which they thought would also work well at Yale. Ricardo Morris, who is now a third-year student in theater management, was selected to direct the new program, which pairs youngsters with theater professionals with the aim of giving children the experience of writing, producing and acting in original plays. He geared it toward children in the Dwight Edgewood area, he says, "because it is our neighborhood; it's the one the School of Drama is basically a part of."
"There are a lot of kids from that neighborhood that have never seen a professional play before or come to the campus," says Mr. Morris, who has won a President's Public Service Fellowship the past two years to direct the Dwight Edgewood Project. "Our goal is to give them a taste of the theater and at the same time bring them the opportunity to experience a feeling of accomplishment, of success. Theater is a wonderful way to do that because kids are such naturals at play-acting and because the arts are so universal."
Thirteen youngsters are involved in the two phases of the Dwight Edgewood Project. The first part, called "Playmaking," is a six-week program in which each youngster is paired with a mentor and writes his or her own play. In its sequel, called "One-on-Ones," a group of children who completed last year's "Playmaking" course act in a play written especially for them by a playwright mentor. This year, eight students are participating in "Playmaking," while five "graduates" of last year's course have returned to take part in the "One-on-Ones" segment. Some 20 students from the drama school are involved in the program as mentors, actors, set and lighting designers or stage crew. Other participants include two drama school graduates, a recent Yale College graduate and an undergraduate student, as well as a School of Drama staff member. Some serve as paid staff, while the others are volunteers.
The youngsters in "Playmaking" began the program in early June, meeting after school at Christ Church Parish House twice weekly. They played theater games, practiced improvisation and talked with their drama school teachers about the central aspects of a play, including characters, plot and escalation. At the end of their fourth week, the students went off with their mentors to The Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut, a facility run by The Daughters of Wisdom, a group of nuns seeking to promote the arts, "that provides a reflective, retreat-like atmosphere," Mr. Morris says. There, in addition to enjoying such leisurely activities as swimming and volleyball, the children spent highly structured time writing their own plays on the theme "It's Human Nature" and working with their mentors on perfecting them.
It was at The Wisdom House that 10-year-old Kendrix Kelly came up with the idea for his play, "Love at First Site," which is a comedy about two people who fall in love at a shoe store. "I was going to write about a different subject, but while I was lying in bed at The Wisdom House lots of ideas and scenes were going into my head for this love story," he says. For Kendrix, one of the most important things he learned in the program was to focus on writing dialogue instead of simply telling a story, he says. Annette Granucci, a third-year acting student who served as his mentor, also helped him to "put a lot of thought" into what he was writing, Kendrix adds.
Twelve-year-old Stanisha Goodrum says that her visit to The Wisdom House was her favorite part of the program. "I liked being there and working on my own play because there I could write about what I wanted to write, without anybody telling me what to write about," she says. She chose the theme of AIDS for her play, "My Brother Has Changed," about a high school girl who is forced to take time off from school to take care of her brother, who is dying of AIDS. Her mentor, third-year playwright Liz Adams, helped her to sift through the many ideas she had for the play to keep it "to the point," says Stanisha.
Once back in New Haven, the drama school students began making props and meeting daily for two-hour rehearsals to ready themselves for the July 10 performance. Several of the youngsters attended the rehearsals and even provided some directorial advice to the Yale actors about their own visions for their works.
"One of the great things about the program is that we adults are treating each play as an important and valid work, and the actors and directors put their best in it," says Mr. Morris. "For the kids to see that really makes them feel they've accomplished something important. It really means a lot to them to see that professional theater people are treating their works so seriously."
The strong commitment of the drama school students and other project staff has benefited more than the youngsters, according to many of the adult participants in the Dwight Edgewood Project. Ms. Granucci, for example, who acted in two plays in addition to serving as a mentor, decided to work in the program because she wanted to be a part of "that childlike imagination and curiosity again," she says. "My involvement also helped to spur it again in me."
For third-year directing student Andrew Utter, working in the Dwight Edgewood Project gave him an opportunity to step out of the director's chair and take on the role of an actor. He portrayed a character named Michael in 11-year-old Josephine Ampley's play "A Valuable Lesson," about two self-righteous 14-year-old boys who come to realize that their constant desire to out-do each other has actually diminished their prestige. He also directed 11-year-old Jacquedah Williams' play "A Surprise for Synthia," about a young girl whose mother abandons her after giving birth to a new baby daughter.
"When I first got involved, I didn't really expect to enjoy it as much as I did because I didn't think of myself as someone who is especially good with kids" says Mr. Utter, who also served as a mentor. "As it turns out, I really found it tremendously exciting to see and hear what the kids come up with and to help them discover some of their own talents."
For many of the mentors, the summer program also gave them a much-longed-for chance to perform community service, according to Mr. Morris, who last spring won an Elm-Ivy Award in recognition of his contributions to the Dwight Edgewood Project and the neighborhood it serves. "A lot of us are interested in making a difference, but during the school year our schedules at the drama school can be pretty intense," he explains. "We can become so cloistered; in fact, some of the mentors had never even been beyond Park Street and into the Dwight Edgewood neighborhood before they became involved. So the program has opened a lot of our eyes and refocused some of us on our missions."
While the "Playmaking" course ended with the July 10 performance, the drama students are now engaged working with the five young participants in "One-on-Ones." They spent the week of July 15 at The Wisdom House, where the playwrights had the opportunity to get to know the young Troup students and begin writing plays especially for them. Composer Kim Sherman, an artist- in-residence at the drama school, will also create a special song to accompany each play. On July 23, the youngsters will perform in the plays with their playwright mentors in the School of Drama's Experimental Theater.
The continued contact with the Troup students through the "One-on-Ones" program is a vital part of the Dwight Edgewood Project, according to Mr. Morris. "Our hope is to continue our involvement with the same kids through their high school years," he says, adding that during the school year, mentors will keep in contact with the Troup students by inviting them to drama school and Rep performances and sending occasional letters or notes.
For many of the youngsters, being involved in the Dwight Edgewood Project has inspired them to continue writing, and some have already come up with themes for their new works. "My next play is going to be about Frankenstein," says 11-year-old Travis Ward, whose "Playmaking" work, "Can I Find My Way Home?" was about two skunks getting lost. Eleven-year-old Dominique Suggs, whose first play was based on a real-life experience of breaking her mother's vase, plans to write her next play about cancer, incorporating what she learned about the disease through a family member's experience. "That is something I feel I can write a real good play about," she says.
Ten-year-old Katy Weinstein and Josephine Ampley expressed even bigger ambitions -- they're both determined to continue playwriting and become professional actresses. "I really want to go to the Yale drama school," says Katy. "I got to see how good the Yale actors are because I came to all their rehearsals for my play. They really got into it, and they're great actors. That's exactly what I'd like to be."
-- BY SUSAN GONZALEZ