Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Producing Plays in Jail

PG: Make no doubt about it, Metro Regional Youth Detention Center seems like a prison. But inside, at the Playmaking for Girls workshop there is a breath of freedom. Susie Spear, the workshop director, welcomes the 10 girls who are here to learn the craft of playmaking. They?re about 12 to 16 years old and identically dressed in denim pants and blue shirts.

SUSIE_1(:11) We are with a group called Synchronicity Theater Group and the name of this program is called Playmaking for Girls and we believe in the female power.

?. fade out her talking?..

Playmaking for Girls began about 5 years ago when Synchonicity ? a women-oriented theater group ? was preparing a play about a girl gang member. Rachel May is Synchronicity?s artistic director.

MAY_2k (:13) We were interested in making sure that out actors didn?t just play gang girls but instead really had some exposure to kids who had been in those sorts of circumstances. We went into a detention center and did a two day workshop with the girls who were locked up.

And, according to May, it was supposed to be a one shot deal, but?.

MAY_3 We loved it and the girls loved it, and it had tremendous impact, so Playmaking for Girls was born.

Most of the girls in today?s workshop haven?t ever seen a play, let alone written one, and some are here just to get out of the detention center routine.

They?re here for a variety of offenses ? truancy, drugs, prostitution and even some violent crimes.

After seeing a couple plays written in previous workshops, the girls team up and begin the collaborative writing process.

GIRL1_1k (:08) And then it can be like a silence [another girl] the next day, she like hmmm. And that?s when the scene stop.

The themes come from the girls? experiences. They?re about relationships with boys, with girls, and parents. One girl, whom we?ll call Ivory, describes her play.

GIRL2_1 (:19) Its about a girl named Jennifer. She meets a guy, older guy, at a club, that?s she?s not supposed to be at, and he end up giving her drugs and raping her. Her friend, Tasha, try to help her through it, which she did by the end of the story.

The girls spend the second day of the workshop rehearsing, and that evening, after dinner, they perform their plays in front parents and siblings as well as other girls in the detention center.

PLAY: [:23] Lights up. Scene 1. Shadow Down Low, a club in Oakland California. Girl lets go grab us a drink. Girl I?m so glad your cousin hooked us up with these fake IDs. Even though we only 17, tonight I feel like I?m 21. [fade] Can we please get an apple martini please?

The five plays only take only an hour to perform, and the girls get a standing ovation. Afterwards, the girls talk about the workshop.

This girl, whom we?ll call Chevelle, is 15.

girls_chevel (:07): It make you feel real good cause you actually accomplish something, you actually try something new, and you did something. I really like it so I?m going continue to do it.

Another young playwright chimes in:

girls_strawberry_someonenot (:07) It gives us an opportunity to put all of our problems behind us and be someone that we know that we?re really not.

For the girls, the workshop has been a rare moment of positive reinforcement which makes them feel worthwhile.