Sunday, June 14, 2009 | A+E, In this Issue..., Theater
Role models

Playmaking for Girls helps at-risk teens express themselves—and turn their lives around

Photos courtesy Playmaking for Girls/Synchronicity Performance Group

PLAYMAKING FOR GIRLS PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
Saturday, June 20
6 p.m.
7 Stages
Free (reservations recommended)
404-484-8636
www.synchrotheatre.com

BY AUTUMN BOND-ROSS

Five minutes ago, they were giggling and roughhousing, just like any other fresh-faced young girls. Now, the tone at the South Bend Center for Art and Culture has turned serious, even haunting. The girls stomp their feet in unison to a staccato beat, and begin chanting a cappella:

 “Violence—it’s everywhere/ Though it seems no one gives a care/ A bullet in the head, a fallen friend/ Will this ever end?/ An innocent life just gone—taken/ In this nightmare that don’t awaken.”
More powerful lyrics follow, each more poignant and shocking than the last. The room is quiet. Some audience members tear up; others have goose bumps.

This is a normal occurrence at Playmaking for Girls, an empowering theater program for incarcerated and at-risk girls. Kids in this age group are usually known for being boy-crazy and obsessing over Beyoncé’s latest single, but tonight these girls are using the power of their own voices to confront disturbing social issues.

“People assume a lot about these kids, and some of it is absolutely true,” says Rachel May, artistic director for Synchronicity Performance Group, which runs the Playmaking for Girls program. “But these are smart, loving, silly, warm teenage girls. I think it’s really important to get to know them. Nobody listens to these kids.”
 
PFG began in 2002, when Synchronicity began producing “Breath, Boom,” a play about the life of a gang girl from age 16 to 30. The actors wanted exposure to girls who had lived these types of experiences. This led to a pilot workshop with 30 girls at an Atlanta Regional Youth Detention Center (RYDC) facility, focused on understanding the girls’ life experiences through playwriting and acting.

What happened next was unexpected. Synchronicity soon realized its efforts weren’t just an acting tool, but had tremendous therapeutic value, allowing these girls to express negative experiences in a more positive, solution-oriented way.

“This program is a really great way for kids to develop their voices, but also for those of us in the community to learn how to listen to them,” says May. “Instead of saying how horrible their circumstances are and doing nothing, we build them up and support them.”

PFG’s original focus on working with Georgia RYDCs remains. But since then, it has expanded to include after-school programs for at-risk teens, a summer follow-up for girls who were previously incarcerated, and a satellite program targeting junior-high and high school teachers. Plans for a mentoring program are also underway.

A METAPHOR FOR LIFE

“People see the razor wire fences around our centers and want no part of us,” says Beverly Westbrooks, facility administrator at the Paulding County RYDC. “But PFG did. They recognize that everyone’s life experiences are different. PFG touches the girls and can help them find their way out of difficult circumstances.”

The public will get an opportunity to observe PFG in action on June 20 at 7 Stages, as previously incarcerated teens, recently released and now on parole, perform eight plays alongside professional actors. The plays were written by children in workshops at detention centers, and cover everything from regular teen issues like peer pressure and parents to violence. Lighter topics, like hair, are also covered, with humor thrown in. “We have had plays about hair weaves before,” May laughs. “Wig drama!”

More significantly, the girls will take their performance back to the Metro, Paulding and Clayton County detention centers, where they were previously incarcerated, to share their accomplishments and the impact of positive life choices to current detainees.

“Everything we do is a metaphor for life," says Susie Spear Purcell, PFG's program director. "We are teaching girls how to support each other, and to deal with situations that might not be comfortable. We show them they can push through that discomfort with positive results.

“An example of this might be that two girls don’t want to work together because of racial differences,” she continues. “They realize later that they have things in common. We tell them this is how life is—sometimes you face complicated issues at work or in other situations. But if you tackle them, good things happen.”

17-year-old Bionca is one of PFG’s success stories. She has a part-time job and will soon be the first person in her family to attend college. But her future didn’t always look so bright. Two years ago, she was arrested for driving a stolen car. She violated probation and house arrest, and was in and out of juvenile detention centers. Discouraged by a relative’s addiction problems and other challenges at home, she thought it was normal to be depressed.

The program, she says, was a major turning point in her life.

“The women [in PFG] are role models,” she says. “They said they were young once, too, and sometimes did things they weren’t supposed to, but they worked through it and were able to accomplish great things. I always thought I felt bad because I inherited that behavior. But now I see positive things can happen.

“When I wrote and acted in PFG, it turned out great,” she continues. “So now, everything that I'm asked to do or I want to do, I always think back to that and remember that if it worked out, maybe other things can, too.” SP