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Mad Joy
Chicago Sun-Times Sept 1996 | Chicago Reader | PerformInk | Chicago Tribune May 1996 | Chicago Tribune Sept. 1996
Chicago Reader
ARTS & CULTURE | PERFORMING ARTS REVIEW April 11, 1996
Unsentimental Journey
Mad Joy
By Gabrielle S. Kaplan
Mad Joy is one of the riskiest, most innovative and sophisticated
pieces of original theater I've seen in Chicago in the last three years.
Employing the haunting music of a violin and viola combined with
intense drums, ritualistic dance influenced by hip-hop and the
blues, and an explosive poetic text that's both gritty and fantastical,
Mad Joy tells the story of Mecca, a woman whose life begins with her
death and moves backward in a clear but nonlinear fashion. Keep in
mind that the people who've created and who perform this wild play
aren't seasoned theater artists but high school students selected to
be in TeenStreet, a Free Street Theater program that pays teens
minimum wage to create theater and expects from them
professional dedication and respect.
Clearly the program is succeeding. In Mad Joy the teens
communicate the unrelenting pressure of inner-city existence
through images in the text: crack pipes hidden under floorboards,
pregnant mothers drinking Seagram's, a suicidal teen imagining the
faces of her family at her funeral. These images underscore the
story, they weave the fabric of the characters' world, but they never
preach or moralize. The world is the world, with its magic and
despair, and Mecca has no choice but to survive. There are no easy
answers here, no "just say no" solutions; instead, both the text and
the movement express the deep emotions of poverty and loss and
allow us to come to our own conclusions.
It's not surprising, considering the age and experience of the
TeenStreet company, that Mad Joy explores a woman getting
younger, not older. Mecca's journey begins with a satisfied and
peaceful old age; she's a sort of innocent, an unjaded woman who
doesn't remember the things of her past, just as those of us who age
in the ordinary way can't know our future. Considering the fates of
many of America's inner-city youth--the untimely deaths through
gang fights, random shootings, substance abuse, little or no health
care, and poverty--it makes sense that the company would create a
story about a woman who begins in death and whose birth contains
the hope of life everlasting. Mecca hasn't the memory for remorse:
her existence is solely in the present tense, in each moment, and
she's liberated by her lack of attachment to possessions and
ambitions. The way Mad Joy wrestles with time, place, and the stuff
of atoms clearly reveals the urgency of those who've considered their
own mortality. There's a passion, a fierceness in this work that
wouldn't come from young people primarily concerned with prom
gowns and college applications.
The talent of this ensemble, which operates very much as a cohesive
unit, is exceptional. Director-facilitator Ron Bieganski has chosen
the members well and brings out their individual talents despite the
work's ensemble nature. These young performers can sing, act, and
dance with equal skill, and some of them also play instruments and
have helped write the text, under playwright Bryn Magnus's
guidance. The dances, choreographed by three-year TeenStreet vet
Happi Price, are stunning and precise, from the expressionistic
opening collage to rhythmic collective choruses that kept me on the
edge of my seat. The playing by the classical string duo (John Paul
Pacino on violin and Barbara Sit on viola, who together composed
the music) is in striking contrast with the more jazzy, smoky text.
Together these elements take us with Mecca on a journey that's both
of this world and beyond it.
Mad Joy proves that theater doesn't need elaborate props or sets; it
simply needs the imagination of artists and audiences. On a bare
stage with no props, these performers use their bodies and voices to
move us from scene to scene. Ann Boyd's expressive costumes help
define the characters, and Bieganski's lighting subtly contributes to
the scenes. But beyond these, no technical effects are needed. In this
minimalist style of theater, story and performance win out over
spectacle.
Tameka J. Flowers, Tomeka Hayes, Valarie Hildebrand, Trulawn
McCray, Joshua Mitchell, Theresa Nazario, Keli K. Stewart, Brian E.
Vines, Price, Pacino, Sit, and writers Chanta Jackson and Kim Johnson
have proved themselves vital theater artists. If they continue on this
path, they'll greatly enrich our community.
ARTS & CULTURE | PERFORMING ARTS REVIEW April 11, 1996
Unsentimental Journey
Mad Joy
By Gabrielle S. Kaplan
Mad Joy is one of the riskiest, most innovative and sophisticated
pieces of original theater I've seen in Chicago in the last three years.
Employing the haunting music of a violin and viola combined with
intense drums, ritualistic dance influenced by hip-hop and the
blues, and an explosive poetic text that's both gritty and fantastical,
Mad Joy tells the story of Mecca, a woman whose life begins with her
death and moves backward in a clear but nonlinear fashion. Keep in
mind that the people who've created and who perform this wild play
aren't seasoned theater artists but high school students selected to
be in TeenStreet, a Free Street Theater program that pays teens
minimum wage to create theater and expects from them
professional dedication and respect.
Clearly the program is succeeding. In Mad Joy the teens
communicate the unrelenting pressure of inner-city existence
through images in the text: crack pipes hidden under floorboards,
pregnant mothers drinking Seagram's, a suicidal teen imagining the
faces of her family at her funeral. These images underscore the
story, they weave the fabric of the characters' world, but they never
preach or moralize. The world is the world, with its magic and
despair, and Mecca has no choice but to survive. There are no easy
answers here, no "just say no" solutions; instead, both the text and
the movement express the deep emotions of poverty and loss and
allow us to come to our own conclusions.
It's not surprising, considering the age and experience of the
TeenStreet company, that Mad Joy explores a woman getting
younger, not older. Mecca's journey begins with a satisfied and
peaceful old age; she's a sort of innocent, an unjaded woman who
doesn't remember the things of her past, just as those of us who age
in the ordinary way can't know our future. Considering the fates of
many of America's inner-city youth--the untimely deaths through
gang fights, random shootings, substance abuse, little or no health
care, and poverty--it makes sense that the company would create a
story about a woman who begins in death and whose birth contains
the hope of life everlasting. Mecca hasn't the memory for remorse:
her existence is solely in the present tense, in each moment, and
she's liberated by her lack of attachment to possessions and
ambitions. The way Mad Joy wrestles with time, place, and the stuff
of atoms clearly reveals the urgency of those who've considered their
own mortality. There's a passion, a fierceness in this work that
wouldn't come from young people primarily concerned with prom
gowns and college applications.
The talent of this ensemble, which operates very much as a cohesive
unit, is exceptional. Director-facilitator Ron Bieganski has chosen
the members well and brings out their individual talents despite the
work's ensemble nature. These young performers can sing, act, and
dance with equal skill, and some of them also play instruments and
have helped write the text, under playwright Bryn Magnus's
guidance. The dances, choreographed by three-year TeenStreet vet
Happi Price, are stunning and precise, from the expressionistic
opening collage to rhythmic collective choruses that kept me on the
edge of my seat. The playing by the classical string duo (John Paul
Pacino on violin and Barbara Sit on viola, who together composed
the music) is in striking contrast with the more jazzy, smoky text.
Together these elements take us with Mecca on a journey that's both
of this world and beyond it.
Mad Joy proves that theater doesn't need elaborate props or sets; it
simply needs the imagination of artists and audiences. On a bare
stage with no props, these performers use their bodies and voices to
move us from scene to scene. Ann Boyd's expressive costumes help
define the characters, and Bieganski's lighting subtly contributes to
the scenes. But beyond these, no technical effects are needed. In this
minimalist style of theater, story and performance win out over
spectacle.
Tameka J. Flowers, Tomeka Hayes, Valarie Hildebrand, Trulawn
McCray, Joshua Mitchell, Theresa Nazario, Keli K. Stewart, Brian E.
Vines, Price, Pacino, Sit, and writers Chanta Jackson and Kim Johnson
have proved themselves vital theater artists. If they continue on this
path, they'll greatly enrich our community.
PerformInk: December 19, 1996
Originality, the Risk Pays Off
"Mad Joy is one of the riskiest, most innovative and sophisticated pieces of original theater I've seen in Chicago in the last three years."
- Gabrielle Kaplan, Chicago Reader April 12, 1996
By Gabrielle Kaplan
PerformInk: December 19, 1996
Looking over my list of favorite plays form the past year, I admit to having a certain bias: I really love exceptional productions of original work. As a playwright, I'm constantly impressed when I see my contemporaries create new theater pieces that have both the craft and the innovation to make a moving, memorable theatrical experience, and I am equally stirred when a director, designers and ensembles of actors take the risk of embracing new work and playing out its author's vision.
While I reluctantly admit that I've seen a number of productions this past year in which the playwright might have been wiser to revise his/her work before professionally staging it, I also saw a significant number of original plays that should become a part of our contemporary canon. First and foremost, kudos go to TeenStreet Theater, a program that employs city teenagers to write and act in original works, through Free Street Theater. This past year's group created Mad Joy, an explosively poetic, both gritty and fantastical text about Mecca, a woman whose life begins with a peaceful old age and who then ages into her birth, which comes with the promise of everlasting life. This utterly complex concept worked extremely well under Ron Bieganski's direction and with writing guidance from Bryn Magnus, as the teenage artists used an eclectic source of music and dance, as well as words, to convey their story about life and death, set against the intense backdrop of present-day inner-city life.
TeenStreet performed Mad Joy at the Free Street Theater at Pulaski Park last spring, and was then invited by Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey to bring the show to the Steppenwolf Studio, where it was also well-received this past autumn.
Another original play, making its Chicago debut, which stands out in my memory was Latino Chicago's production of Migdalia Cruz's exploration of sailor myths and archetypes in her very steamy Cigarettes and Moby Dick.. . . . .
Originality, the Risk Pays Off
"Mad Joy is one of the riskiest, most innovative and sophisticated pieces of original theater I've seen in Chicago in the last three years."
- Gabrielle Kaplan, Chicago Reader April 12, 1996
By Gabrielle Kaplan
PerformInk: December 19, 1996
Looking over my list of favorite plays form the past year, I admit to having a certain bias: I really love exceptional productions of original work. As a playwright, I'm constantly impressed when I see my contemporaries create new theater pieces that have both the craft and the innovation to make a moving, memorable theatrical experience, and I am equally stirred when a director, designers and ensembles of actors take the risk of embracing new work and playing out its author's vision.
While I reluctantly admit that I've seen a number of productions this past year in which the playwright might have been wiser to revise his/her work before professionally staging it, I also saw a significant number of original plays that should become a part of our contemporary canon. First and foremost, kudos go to TeenStreet Theater, a program that employs city teenagers to write and act in original works, through Free Street Theater. This past year's group created Mad Joy, an explosively poetic, both gritty and fantastical text about Mecca, a woman whose life begins with a peaceful old age and who then ages into her birth, which comes with the promise of everlasting life. This utterly complex concept worked extremely well under Ron Bieganski's direction and with writing guidance from Bryn Magnus, as the teenage artists used an eclectic source of music and dance, as well as words, to convey their story about life and death, set against the intense backdrop of present-day inner-city life.
TeenStreet performed Mad Joy at the Free Street Theater at Pulaski Park last spring, and was then invited by Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey to bring the show to the Steppenwolf Studio, where it was also well-received this past autumn.
Another original play, making its Chicago debut, which stands out in my memory was Latino Chicago's production of Migdalia Cruz's exploration of sailor myths and archetypes in her very steamy Cigarettes and Moby Dick.. . . . .
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
May 5, 1996
SOWING SEEDS OF CREATIVITY
By Achy Obejas, Tribune Staff Writer CHICAGO TRIBUNE
On the last day of the run of TeenStreet theater's "Mad Joy," a play about a woman's complex life told backward from her death, David Schein is one happy man. He grins at the overflowing crowd at Pulaski Park, where TeenStreet has been getting standing ovations for more than a month.
"Next September, we've been invited to present `Mad Joy' at the Steppenwolf Studio Theater," he announces to wild cheering and applause.
Then he adds that TeenStreet, a theater company of teens and young adults, has been singled out as a model program in "Coming Up Taller," a report released April 26 by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
"This is the kind of stuff that keeps us treading water," says Schein, the executive director of FreeStreet Theater, the not-for-profit, education-oriented theater company that runs TeenStreet. "Maybe we'll get some recognition. Maybe we'll get more institutional support from different sources as a result."
That, says Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, the executive director of the president's committee, is part of the report's goal.
"We wanted to raise the awareness of government officials, private funders, and community leaders about the arts," she says. "But we knew that first we needed to identify and assess the universe we were talking about."
To that end, the president's committee asked 90 organizations across the country, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Association of Museums and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, to help identify successful organizations working with youth. They compiled a list of more than 600 groups, which were then screened to select those that focus on "at risk" children and work with arts and humanities programs outside of the school curriculum.
"Coming Up Taller," which runs 163 pages, documents the success of 218 such programs across the country. Sixteen of them are Chicago-based organizations, ranging from the Chicago Public Arts Group, an agency that creates art for display in outdoor spaces, and Street Level Video/Live Wire, which teaches kids the use of video and computers, to New Expressions, a city-wide newspaper produced for and by high school students, and the Chicago Children's Choir. The choir entertained First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, the honorary chairperson of the president's committee, and committee members at a White House reception to unveil the report. Mayor Richard M. Daley's wife, Maggie, is among the Chicagoans serving on the president's committee.
Clinton says the report is designed to draw attention to programs that "provide soul-saving and life-enhancing opportunities for young people." Ninety-two percent of the participants are teens, many of them are described in the report as "dropouts, teen parents, immigrants, refugees, gang members, (and from) every racial and ethnic group in the country."
Subtle defense
"Coming Up Taller" identifies community groups in which youth and adults meet, which serve as safe havens in violent neighborhoods, and which give children and young adults opportunities to acquire job skills and self-esteem, learn teamwork and develop different cognitive abilities, such as math and logic. It underscores what the programs have in common: the use of the arts and humanities as vehicles for broader skills; hands-on learning techniques; opportunities for success, clear goals and high expectations of participants; and quality staffs. All 218 programs are voluntary.
But beyond patting organizations on the back for good work, "Coming Up Taller" may be seen as a subtle defense of the National Endowment for the Arts, the embattled federal arts agency. Seven of the Chicago groups got money directly from the NEA; all receive state aid, much of it federal dollars redistributed through the Illinois Arts Council.
"We'd prefer not to see the report (as a defense of the NEA)," says McCulloch-Lovell, "but rather as an explanation of the role of all three federal arts agencies: the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum Services."
But Nadine Saitlin, the executive director of the Illinois Arts Education Alliance, thinks "Coming Up Taller" is a potent advocacy tool for arts and arts education. She says the report may be a first step in a strategy to save the NEA.
"The next step is to just come out and say the NEA should be saved," she says. "(But first) people have to know where their tax dollars are going. It (the report) says that many of these organizations couldn't have started without seed money from the government. Once they had that seed money, they were able to attract private dollars and corporate dollars to continue their work."
In the case of Teen Street, which consumes $73,000 of FreeStreet's $230,000 budget, funds come from a variety of sources, including private donations, corporate foundations, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and the Park District, as well as the Department of Labor. What it doesn't get is direct NEA support.
"We haven't even tried in the last few years," says Schein. Because TeenStreet straddles arts and social service, it often falls between the cracks of funding organizations. But this year, with the NEA's newly structured guidelines--de-emphasizing individual artist grants in favor of community projects--Schein is going to reapply. "We're very community-oriented and, suddenly, so is the NEA, so I think we have a better chance," he adds.
Community cross-section
Besides TeenStreet, Free Street has drama companies for teen parents and seniors. It also sponsors a program called Arts Connect, which trains medical students in the healing uses of art. Its Clown Doctors is a bedside performing project that entertains chronically ill children. And Free Street's arts literacy programs, based at Arai and Pierce elementary schools in Uptown, Manierre Elementary, Holy Family Community Center, the New City Gym in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood and Pulaski Park in West Town, work to improve writing and speaking skills through theater and dance workshops.
The kids involved in TeenStreet come from all over the city. "Every time we perform, we meet kids," says Ron Bieganski, TeenStreet's artistic director. "We put up flyers in high schools, take out ads in New Expressions, go to festivals. We get a huge response--about 400 kids. I only have 30 slots during the summer so we try to redirect the other kids to other programs."
During the school year, the number of TeenStreet slots drops to 12 but the company's partnerships with schools and other community organizations help serve hundreds of kids. TeenStreet meets for two weekly sessions: two hours on Thursdays and four hours on Saturday. The company members, who stay an average of two years, are paid $5 an hour to rehearse and perform.
"I use that money to live," says Trulawn McCray, a company member who lives in the Cabrini-Green housing project. "It's important to me because I can help my mother with groceries and stuff."
Valarie Hildebrand, who had the lead role of Mecca in "Mad Joy," also considers her tenure with TeenStreet a vital part of her education. "I learned how to deal with different personalities, how to be more open-minded, how to solve things sensitively," she explains. "That's important to me because I really care (about people) and I know life can be really hard."
Hildebrand, who lives in the Robert Taylor Homes and has dodged bullets to get to TeenStreet rehearsals, isn't sure she's interested in pursuing an arts career. But Diane Chandler, the Chicago Board of Education's new coordinator for cultural arts, says the skills taught at TeenStreet and the other programs in "Coming Up Taller" have resonance well beyond the arts.
"We have different intelligences, and these programs develop them all," she says. "For example, we now know that the same part of the brain that contains math skills also contains music skills. So learning about music helps with math."
Schein says Free Street used to do psychological assessments of its youth participants but stopped doing them a few years back. "The only reason we were doing them was because foundations wanted them (to justify funding)," he says. "Now we check how they're doing in school. We check their Iowa scores. We talk to teachers and parents. And we look at the portfolio of their writings that they keep while they're here. The fact is, we see a lot of growth. Many of these kids go on to college. Many are the first in their families to do so. Sometimes the parents are surprised their kids are achieving so much. For us, that's the real success story."
ARTS COMMUNITY'S `SWEET 16'
These are the Chicago area organizations cited in "Coming Up Taller," the report by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Beacon Street Gallery and Theatre, 4520 N. Beacon St.: Provides art jobs and cultural heritage programs.
Boulevard Arts Center, 6011 S. Justine St.: Provides employment training in the arts.
Chicago Children's Choir, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.: Has in-school, after-school and concert choir programs.
Chicago Public Arts Group, 1255 S. Wabash Ave.: Provides youth training in arts-related fields, including mentoring programs.
Community Television Network, 2035 W. Wabansia Ave.: Provides after-school programs in video and television. The group produces award-winning cable TV shows.
Gallery 37, headquartered at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.: Provides arts education and job training.
Hyde Park Art Center, 5307 S. Hyde Park Blvd.: Has a gallery and provides classes and outreach to young people.
Marwen Foundation, 325 W. Huron St.: Provides community partnership, studios and college career programs for young people.
MERIT Music Program of Chicago, Dearborn Station 47: Runs music classes for economically disadvantaged children.
New Expressions, at Youth Communications, 70 E. Lake St.: Operates a city-wide newspaper that provides young people with opportunities in writing, design, media and administration.
Northern Horizon Cultural Arts Program, at Demicco Youth Services, 825 N. Hudson Ave.: Provides arts classes in a variety of media
.
People's School of Music, 931 W. Wrightwood Ave.: Provides free music education.
Street Level Video/Live Wire, working with the Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street and North Avenue, and Randolph Street Gallery, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave.: Offers classes in video and computers and creates documentary projects.
Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians, 1148 W. Chicago Ave.: Provides music instruction.
TeenStreet, a division of FreeStreet Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk St.: Provides theatrical experience to teens and young adults.
Youth Service Project, 3942 W. North Ave.: Provides arts-related summer employment for youth.
Copyright © Chicago Tribune
http://archive.li/B3jOo
May 5, 1996
SOWING SEEDS OF CREATIVITY
By Achy Obejas, Tribune Staff Writer CHICAGO TRIBUNE
On the last day of the run of TeenStreet theater's "Mad Joy," a play about a woman's complex life told backward from her death, David Schein is one happy man. He grins at the overflowing crowd at Pulaski Park, where TeenStreet has been getting standing ovations for more than a month.
"Next September, we've been invited to present `Mad Joy' at the Steppenwolf Studio Theater," he announces to wild cheering and applause.
Then he adds that TeenStreet, a theater company of teens and young adults, has been singled out as a model program in "Coming Up Taller," a report released April 26 by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
"This is the kind of stuff that keeps us treading water," says Schein, the executive director of FreeStreet Theater, the not-for-profit, education-oriented theater company that runs TeenStreet. "Maybe we'll get some recognition. Maybe we'll get more institutional support from different sources as a result."
That, says Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, the executive director of the president's committee, is part of the report's goal.
"We wanted to raise the awareness of government officials, private funders, and community leaders about the arts," she says. "But we knew that first we needed to identify and assess the universe we were talking about."
To that end, the president's committee asked 90 organizations across the country, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Association of Museums and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, to help identify successful organizations working with youth. They compiled a list of more than 600 groups, which were then screened to select those that focus on "at risk" children and work with arts and humanities programs outside of the school curriculum.
"Coming Up Taller," which runs 163 pages, documents the success of 218 such programs across the country. Sixteen of them are Chicago-based organizations, ranging from the Chicago Public Arts Group, an agency that creates art for display in outdoor spaces, and Street Level Video/Live Wire, which teaches kids the use of video and computers, to New Expressions, a city-wide newspaper produced for and by high school students, and the Chicago Children's Choir. The choir entertained First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, the honorary chairperson of the president's committee, and committee members at a White House reception to unveil the report. Mayor Richard M. Daley's wife, Maggie, is among the Chicagoans serving on the president's committee.
Clinton says the report is designed to draw attention to programs that "provide soul-saving and life-enhancing opportunities for young people." Ninety-two percent of the participants are teens, many of them are described in the report as "dropouts, teen parents, immigrants, refugees, gang members, (and from) every racial and ethnic group in the country."
Subtle defense
"Coming Up Taller" identifies community groups in which youth and adults meet, which serve as safe havens in violent neighborhoods, and which give children and young adults opportunities to acquire job skills and self-esteem, learn teamwork and develop different cognitive abilities, such as math and logic. It underscores what the programs have in common: the use of the arts and humanities as vehicles for broader skills; hands-on learning techniques; opportunities for success, clear goals and high expectations of participants; and quality staffs. All 218 programs are voluntary.
But beyond patting organizations on the back for good work, "Coming Up Taller" may be seen as a subtle defense of the National Endowment for the Arts, the embattled federal arts agency. Seven of the Chicago groups got money directly from the NEA; all receive state aid, much of it federal dollars redistributed through the Illinois Arts Council.
"We'd prefer not to see the report (as a defense of the NEA)," says McCulloch-Lovell, "but rather as an explanation of the role of all three federal arts agencies: the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum Services."
But Nadine Saitlin, the executive director of the Illinois Arts Education Alliance, thinks "Coming Up Taller" is a potent advocacy tool for arts and arts education. She says the report may be a first step in a strategy to save the NEA.
"The next step is to just come out and say the NEA should be saved," she says. "(But first) people have to know where their tax dollars are going. It (the report) says that many of these organizations couldn't have started without seed money from the government. Once they had that seed money, they were able to attract private dollars and corporate dollars to continue their work."
In the case of Teen Street, which consumes $73,000 of FreeStreet's $230,000 budget, funds come from a variety of sources, including private donations, corporate foundations, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and the Park District, as well as the Department of Labor. What it doesn't get is direct NEA support.
"We haven't even tried in the last few years," says Schein. Because TeenStreet straddles arts and social service, it often falls between the cracks of funding organizations. But this year, with the NEA's newly structured guidelines--de-emphasizing individual artist grants in favor of community projects--Schein is going to reapply. "We're very community-oriented and, suddenly, so is the NEA, so I think we have a better chance," he adds.
Community cross-section
Besides TeenStreet, Free Street has drama companies for teen parents and seniors. It also sponsors a program called Arts Connect, which trains medical students in the healing uses of art. Its Clown Doctors is a bedside performing project that entertains chronically ill children. And Free Street's arts literacy programs, based at Arai and Pierce elementary schools in Uptown, Manierre Elementary, Holy Family Community Center, the New City Gym in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood and Pulaski Park in West Town, work to improve writing and speaking skills through theater and dance workshops.
The kids involved in TeenStreet come from all over the city. "Every time we perform, we meet kids," says Ron Bieganski, TeenStreet's artistic director. "We put up flyers in high schools, take out ads in New Expressions, go to festivals. We get a huge response--about 400 kids. I only have 30 slots during the summer so we try to redirect the other kids to other programs."
During the school year, the number of TeenStreet slots drops to 12 but the company's partnerships with schools and other community organizations help serve hundreds of kids. TeenStreet meets for two weekly sessions: two hours on Thursdays and four hours on Saturday. The company members, who stay an average of two years, are paid $5 an hour to rehearse and perform.
"I use that money to live," says Trulawn McCray, a company member who lives in the Cabrini-Green housing project. "It's important to me because I can help my mother with groceries and stuff."
Valarie Hildebrand, who had the lead role of Mecca in "Mad Joy," also considers her tenure with TeenStreet a vital part of her education. "I learned how to deal with different personalities, how to be more open-minded, how to solve things sensitively," she explains. "That's important to me because I really care (about people) and I know life can be really hard."
Hildebrand, who lives in the Robert Taylor Homes and has dodged bullets to get to TeenStreet rehearsals, isn't sure she's interested in pursuing an arts career. But Diane Chandler, the Chicago Board of Education's new coordinator for cultural arts, says the skills taught at TeenStreet and the other programs in "Coming Up Taller" have resonance well beyond the arts.
"We have different intelligences, and these programs develop them all," she says. "For example, we now know that the same part of the brain that contains math skills also contains music skills. So learning about music helps with math."
Schein says Free Street used to do psychological assessments of its youth participants but stopped doing them a few years back. "The only reason we were doing them was because foundations wanted them (to justify funding)," he says. "Now we check how they're doing in school. We check their Iowa scores. We talk to teachers and parents. And we look at the portfolio of their writings that they keep while they're here. The fact is, we see a lot of growth. Many of these kids go on to college. Many are the first in their families to do so. Sometimes the parents are surprised their kids are achieving so much. For us, that's the real success story."
ARTS COMMUNITY'S `SWEET 16'
These are the Chicago area organizations cited in "Coming Up Taller," the report by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Beacon Street Gallery and Theatre, 4520 N. Beacon St.: Provides art jobs and cultural heritage programs.
Boulevard Arts Center, 6011 S. Justine St.: Provides employment training in the arts.
Chicago Children's Choir, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.: Has in-school, after-school and concert choir programs.
Chicago Public Arts Group, 1255 S. Wabash Ave.: Provides youth training in arts-related fields, including mentoring programs.
Community Television Network, 2035 W. Wabansia Ave.: Provides after-school programs in video and television. The group produces award-winning cable TV shows.
Gallery 37, headquartered at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.: Provides arts education and job training.
Hyde Park Art Center, 5307 S. Hyde Park Blvd.: Has a gallery and provides classes and outreach to young people.
Marwen Foundation, 325 W. Huron St.: Provides community partnership, studios and college career programs for young people.
MERIT Music Program of Chicago, Dearborn Station 47: Runs music classes for economically disadvantaged children.
New Expressions, at Youth Communications, 70 E. Lake St.: Operates a city-wide newspaper that provides young people with opportunities in writing, design, media and administration.
Northern Horizon Cultural Arts Program, at Demicco Youth Services, 825 N. Hudson Ave.: Provides arts classes in a variety of media
.
People's School of Music, 931 W. Wrightwood Ave.: Provides free music education.
Street Level Video/Live Wire, working with the Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street and North Avenue, and Randolph Street Gallery, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave.: Offers classes in video and computers and creates documentary projects.
Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians, 1148 W. Chicago Ave.: Provides music instruction.
TeenStreet, a division of FreeStreet Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk St.: Provides theatrical experience to teens and young adults.
Youth Service Project, 3942 W. North Ave.: Provides arts-related summer employment for youth.
Copyright © Chicago Tribune
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
September 25, 1996
IMAGINATION, YOUTH TRIUMPH IN `MAD JOY'
By Richard Christiansen, Tribune Chief Critic
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Since its founding in 1969 by director Patrick Henry, the Free Street Theater has been an outreach program that produces art, as well as social works.
Henry's aim of shepherding raw talent into productions of music, dance and drama that relate directly to the daily experiences of urban life has never been lost, even after his death in 1989; and since 1992, much of the organization's high-profile work has been centered in TeenStreet, a self-described "employment training program" that provides young performers with minimum-wage jobs, education in theater techniques, ensemble performance and improvisatory drama.
The best of this work, supervised by dancer-choreographer-director Ron Bieganski, Free Street's artistic director since 1995, has resulted in yearly shows that play to acclaim in Chicago and on tour.
"Mad Joy," the latest production engendered by TeenStreet workshops, currently is enjoying a showcase presentation by some of its most skilled performers in the Steppenwolf Studio Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., with four final performances scheduled Thursday through Sunday.
As always, the show is filled with the sights and sounds of the inner city. (The most arresting, and disturbing, of these is a child's nonsense song, mixing nursery school figures with the image of a crack cocaine pipe.)
"Mad Joy," however, goes beyond the semidocumentary to become an almost avant-garde work of art-house sophistication.
The jazz choreography, by performer Happi Price, keeps the nine players clapping, slapping and stomping in modern dance ensemble, while the music forms a binding force for the narrative.
But the show's most striking imaginative note, inspired by the players' interest in developing the character of "someone who is getting younger," is its focusing on the symbolic, surrealistic life of an inner-city woman who lives life in reverse, going from death to birth.
The story of this woman, called Mecca (Valerie Hildebrand, a TeenStreet veteran), is the center of "Mad Joy," the tale around which the flow of music and dance revolves, ending in a stunning image of birth that's achieved by the simplest yet most imaginative of means.
Performed in 90 minutes with all-out vigor (if not always clarity) by the young cast, this is a combination of story theater, post-modern dance and performance piece. Not exactly everybody's idea of a teen job training program, but potent and original art.
Copyright © Chicago Tribune
http://archive.li/YS9I7
September 25, 1996
IMAGINATION, YOUTH TRIUMPH IN `MAD JOY'
By Richard Christiansen, Tribune Chief Critic
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Since its founding in 1969 by director Patrick Henry, the Free Street Theater has been an outreach program that produces art, as well as social works.
Henry's aim of shepherding raw talent into productions of music, dance and drama that relate directly to the daily experiences of urban life has never been lost, even after his death in 1989; and since 1992, much of the organization's high-profile work has been centered in TeenStreet, a self-described "employment training program" that provides young performers with minimum-wage jobs, education in theater techniques, ensemble performance and improvisatory drama.
The best of this work, supervised by dancer-choreographer-director Ron Bieganski, Free Street's artistic director since 1995, has resulted in yearly shows that play to acclaim in Chicago and on tour.
"Mad Joy," the latest production engendered by TeenStreet workshops, currently is enjoying a showcase presentation by some of its most skilled performers in the Steppenwolf Studio Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., with four final performances scheduled Thursday through Sunday.
As always, the show is filled with the sights and sounds of the inner city. (The most arresting, and disturbing, of these is a child's nonsense song, mixing nursery school figures with the image of a crack cocaine pipe.)
"Mad Joy," however, goes beyond the semidocumentary to become an almost avant-garde work of art-house sophistication.
The jazz choreography, by performer Happi Price, keeps the nine players clapping, slapping and stomping in modern dance ensemble, while the music forms a binding force for the narrative.
But the show's most striking imaginative note, inspired by the players' interest in developing the character of "someone who is getting younger," is its focusing on the symbolic, surrealistic life of an inner-city woman who lives life in reverse, going from death to birth.
The story of this woman, called Mecca (Valerie Hildebrand, a TeenStreet veteran), is the center of "Mad Joy," the tale around which the flow of music and dance revolves, ending in a stunning image of birth that's achieved by the simplest yet most imaginative of means.
Performed in 90 minutes with all-out vigor (if not always clarity) by the young cast, this is a combination of story theater, post-modern dance and performance piece. Not exactly everybody's idea of a teen job training program, but potent and original art.
Copyright © Chicago Tribune
http://archive.li/YS9I7
