by Carl Capotorto
by Carl Capotorto
The 52nd Street Project is a nonprofit organization that brings inner city children from the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City together with professional theater artists to create theater.
Founded by Artistic Director Willie Reale over 12 years ago, the Project has a demonstrably constructive and enlivening effect on the children it engages and is being replicated in cities around the country. Last year Reale won a MacArthur Fellowship for his work, the so-called "genius grant" of $250,000.
This diary is an account of the writer's involvement with a Project program called Playback. In it, an adult actor/playwright is paired with a kid actor/playwright. The duo is charged to invent two characters for the kid to write a play for. The adult then responds with a second play or a continuation of the play using the same two characters.
The theme of this Playback was "The Other Shoe Drops," which means that all of the plays (a total of six) should toy in some way with the idea of consequence. We went away for a few days to write the plays, came back to rehearse them, and then performed them on Manhattan's Theater Row.
Here's how it went, from Day One to Opening Night:
Friday, October 6
The plan is for the adult mentors and Project staff to meet at New Dramatists (on 42nd Street) at 3:00, be joined at 4:00 by the kids and then at 5:00 to pile into two vans and a car and enjoy boxed dinners while starting the 4 hour drive to a seaside mansion in the cliffs just outside of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
I arrive late, at 5:00, and find the place peaceful, kids sitting around chatting with their adult mentors, and Project staff preparing for the big haul. I find Jennifer, my kid for the weekend, and introduce myself. We sit in a couple of club chairs and chat.
Jennifer is a pretty girl of twelve, tall, quiet, focused, smart. She lives in the neighborhood with her mother, father and kid brother. Her favorite TV show is "David Letterman." I ask her why and she tells me because her uncle plays in the band. We talk about it a little more and it turns out she's talking about "The Tonight Show." She's a little embarrassed. We have an easy rapport. Time to load up the vans.
It's past 6:00 but we are still at New Dramatists. The vans are packed and we're ready to go but there's problem with the food delivery. It appears the sandwich shop has a guy in the field who can't find us. The shop is only two blocks away, we can practically see it from where we are, but no go. It's a comedy of errors. Finally the food arrives. We hand it out with chips and soda, pile into the vans and drive off.
We head north on Broadway from 42nd Street, veering west onto Riverside Drive in the upper 90's. By 100th Street the other van, being driven by the
Project Associate Artistic Director, Michael Bernard, signals for us to pull over. (The van I'm in is being driven by Willie Reale. Both vans contain a mix of kids and adults.) It seems one of the kids in the other van has become carsick already and has regurgitated his dinner only a few blocks after wolfing it down. Willie gets out to search a rear compartment for the carsick remedy. Another kid, Virginia Vargas, 16, rail thin and giant-eyed, is looking a little green. Willie gives her a pink pill. We belt up and drive on.
Friday, October 6
About four hours later we are chugging our way up a winding, rising cliffside road. I am reading directions while Willie drives -- he's been here before and sort of knows the way. As I read the directions aloud we appreciate that they've been peppered with playful business for us, like: "at next fork, take a left...honk horn, pass big fields, roll down windows and smell air, look for woodchucks." How our witty hosts brighten the way.
Suddenly we turn onto a short road that opens onto a clearing: A huge, gray washed, classic Cape Cod house is sprawled along the contours of a wooded cliff before a sheer drop to the ocean. I am duly awed as we unload the van.
Inside, the house is a wonder. Room after room after room of sumptuous homespun comfort and beauty: a total of 8 or 9 bedrooms, 3 or 4 parlors, other rooms galore. You could sleep and house 20 people or so in style and comfort here. I feel like Oliver Twist as I'm shown to my room; a four poster bed that you have to hop up to sink into, thick cotton sheets, a fluffy down comforter, lush draperies, thick woven rugs, a stone fireplace, a lovely old bathroom with a Jacuzzi showerhead, views of the grounds and the ocean from three windows.
After the inspiring tour of the house led by Carol Ochs, Project Executive Director, I go back down to the kitchen and discover that we're still waiting for Michael's van to arrive. It turns out he missed an exit on the highway and very nearly drove to Boston. He's made to suffer a little humiliation when he finally arrives and then we all have cookies and milk and go off to get settled into our rooms. Tomorrow the work begins.
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