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May
16, 2004
In a cafeteria at the Northwest Youth Corps' Outdoor School on Thursday
afternoon, the contrasts were jarring:
Stark
honesty in a world where we recently learned one of our state's
most respected politicians was having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
A
group of 60-or-older adults dancing, singing and telling stories
to 15 teenagers brought up on MTV.
The voice of experience not only being offered to kids, but seemingly
being listened to by many.
Oh, there were a few eye-rolls when the Encore Theatre troupe opened
the show. Sophomore Jake Telford says he was braced for boredom.
"It ended up being pretty funny and their stories were pretty
good and some of their experiences hit home with me," he said.
"They connected with a lot of people," junior Alexa Davies
said. "You realize we're not the first generation to go through
sex and drugs. It was interesting to learn how they've coped."
Founded in 1997, Encore does something that nobody around does:
encourages youth with an all-senior cast that, instead of reading
some plug-and-play script, shares stories from their own lives.
And so there you had Fred Merten talking about his beer-drinking
days starting at age 8. And Omar Nelson telling about getting his
girlfriend pregnant. And Sharon Whitney talking about her storybook
life being shattered by a husband who left her for another woman.
The idea is to help kids make their way in a world that's often
cold and confusing. A world these people have lived to tell about.
"Three things make the program work," founder and director
Eliza Roaring Springs says. "First, kids connect with these
`grandparents' in a way they don't always with their parents. Second,
theater is magic; it enables you to reach audiences on an emotional
level. And, third, it's the honesty. Kids will tell us: `I didn't
know adults could be so honest.' "
In years past, some parents expressed outrage over such honesty.
In 2000, controversy erupted over some sexuality-related lines said
during a
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performance
at a Eugene elementary school. Since then, the troupe has geared
itself to a middle school/high school audience, though it still
ventures into territory that some parents will find inappropriate.
The
10-person show hops from topic to topic - relationships, anger,
blame, belonging, sex, drugs, etc. - through song, dance and, above
all, stories. Two men mention their gayness. A woman laments that
she didn't have sex before marriage.
Honesty.
It's not always easy. But, Encore Theatre suggests, it beats the
alternative.
And
yet from others in the troupe: A man says how glad he was that he
and his wife waited for marriage before having sex. "Nobody
else shared that experience but each other." Another talks
about how he regretted having "meaningless" sex with so
many women and about the hypocrisy of warning his teenage grandson
about pot use when he was using himself.
Encore
Theatre is "Up With People" without the stay-pressed smiles,
a sort of philosophical salad bar doused in liberal ladlings of
honesty. You may not agree with all you hear, but it's hard to refute
the general message - to make something of your life. And easy to
applaud people who, in our never-let-'em-see-you-sweat culture,
have the guts to be real.
"It's really cool and brave of them," said Davies, who
joined her peers for a workshop afterward focusing on communication.
The troupe sings about blaming others instead of taking responsibility
for ourselves. A woman talks about how a brush with cancer reminded
her "life is precious." A man remembers how he drank as
a teenager to show how grown up he was - "as if puking out
the window of (a) car was `grown up.' "
Honesty. It's not always easy. But, Encore Theatre suggests, it
beats the alternative.
An Encore show, open to the public, will be held at 7:30 p.m. May
22 in the band room at Roosevelt Middle School. For more information,
call 686-4341 or 342-1630.
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