Eighty Nathan Hale Middle School
students sat on the gymnasium floor squirming and whispering, full of energy and a little uneasy about what to expect. Some of the 13- and 14-year-old kids looked like they were already adults;
others seemed younger than their years.
A few were paired off boy-girl, but most
sat with same-sex friends, leaning on each other and horsing around while they waited. They had gathered to watch a performance by Open End Theater -- a troupe created and coordinated by retired English literature professor Thomas Greene -- and the youngsters knew it was going to be about teen pregnancy.
The play they saw, "Devonya's Decision," is the realistic story of a high school girl who gets pregnant and has to decide what to do about it. Five student actors played all eight roles with no costumes and only minimal props. The drama unfolded in a series of scenes: Devonya and her boyfriend, Tony, in love. Devonya telling Tony she's pregnant. His stunned reaction. Devonya's exhausted mother trying to persuade her not to have the baby, or to put it up for adoption. Devonya's friend Charlene, modeling abstinence, and offering emotional support.
The play has no predetermined ending. When the characters reached an impasse, the action stopped. The moderator, Richard Squeri, stepped forward to lead a discussion of the issues and options. Arguments flew back and forth:
"Let her mother help her raise the child," says one student, and others murmured assent.
"Hey, that's not exactly fair to the mother, is it?" asks another. "We don't know if she's willing to take on that
responsibility. This is Devonya's problem, not her mother's."
The students tossed out other options: open adoption, closed adoption, abortion. After discussing the issue for a while, the audience voted on the ending they thought would be best, and the performance concluded along those lines. At the Nathan Hale performance, the students voted for Devonya to have the baby and bring it up herself. The concluding act showed her, frustrated, humiliated and angry, struggling to apply for public assistance with the baby in her arms.
"This is an important program for us because the issues are timely to our student population," said Diana Mastromarino, assistant principal at Nathan Hale, when the play was over. "Many of our students have experienced -- or will experience -- what was discussed. They are at the age when they face these issues. This fits right in with our Values and Choices curriculum."
Mickey Kavanagh, facilitator for the New Haven Public Schools Human Sexuality and AIDS Education Program, concurred: "We think it's very worthwhile to give students a day to think about something like this before it comes to pass in their lives. Many times we are forced to make difficult decisions in life, and this helps students consider the alternatives." Ms. Kavanagh helped schedule Open End Theater in the schools.
The Open End Theater was launched last year with funding from Yale and this year received a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. During the fall semester, the troupe performed at five area schools. In the spring, they plan eight or 10 performances. Charlene Andrade, founder of Youth Theater New Haven, directs the company; Jim Luse, lecturer in theater studies at Yale and former director of education at Long Wharf Theater, wrote the script.
"As of our performance at Fair Haven Middle School on Dec. 9, we have reached 350 youngsters," says Professor Greene. "My hope is that by next May, we'll have had an impact on 900 to 1,000 youngsters. I'm feeling good about that." In some schools, he notes, there have been pregnant girls in the audience. "I was told that if
we performed this play to high school students, we would be too late to make any difference."
One reason the program has a strong impact on its audience, he says, is that it is genuinely open-ended. "We're not trying to preach to our audience," explains Professor Greene. "We try to create a space for reflection, a nonconfrontational place. There are no wrong or right answers here."
Still, his one disappointment with the program is that the audiences overwhelmingly have voted for Devonya to have the baby and raise it herself. "It isn't that I've made up my mind about what the right outcome is," says Professor Greene. "I just wish it was more of a tough issue for the youngsters."
Mr. Greene, who is the Frederick Clifford Ford Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, undertook this project as a way of "reinventing himself" in his retirement. "After devoting my life to teaching and research at Yale -- living, pretty much, in the 16th century -- I wanted to pay more attention to my role as a citizen of New Haven. I heard [Vice President and University Secretary] Linda Lorimer give a talk to the Trumbull Fellows in November 1995 about the inventive outreach programs that Yale has, and I began to think about what I could do."
Cast members are local high school and Yale College work-study students. Megan Gaffney, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, has the lead role of Devonya, while Tony is played by Martin Smith, a junior at the Cooperative Magnet High School for the Arts.
Devonya's best friend Charlene is played by Kari Braaten '00 of Timothy Dwight College; Lisa Grinfeld '01 of Trumbull College plays three small parts: the high school hall monitor, the college roommate and the welfare case worker; and Tae Kwak '00 of Berkeley College plays Devonya's mother.
Ms. Kwak signed onto the project because, "I love theater. I saw this as a great chance to combine doing theater and getting out into the community. Even with the city all around you at Yale, you don't interact much with it or the people, unless you make the effort."
-- By Gila Reinstein