Paul Richau needs only five words to describe why the REALITY Troupe, a teen theater group, has an impact on its audiences.
“Kids listen to other kids,” says Richau, a Libertyville resident who will be a sophomore this fall at Libertyville High School.
Richau is one of 18 high school students from the north and northwest suburbs who auditioned for and earned spots this year in the REALITY (Real Encounters About Life Involving Today’s Youth) Troupe. The group members write, direct and perform scenes about issues facing teens.
These aren’t kids who look like they just stepped out of an L.L. Bean catalog. Instead, they look like they just stepped out of your neighborhood 7-Eleven, and it’s because they look like their audience and talk like their audience that the audience tends to listen.
“They were very, very well received by our students,” says Claire Kopfman, a counselor at Hoffman Estates High School, where the troupe has performed for the last two years. “The kids write the material, so it comes from the hearts of teenagers. The scenes come off as real. The audience doesn’t feel it’s being lectured to.”
The REALITY Troupe is a program of OMNI Youth Services, which offers counseling, prevention and early intervention services to youth and their families in northwest suburban Cook County and south central Lake County.
The group is rehearsing this summer for the one-hour shows it will do at junior highs, high schools and youth centers during the 1998-99 school year, tackling such topics as discrimination, eating disorders and substance and alcohol abuse.
With the guidance of adult co-directors Kim Kohler and Larry Grimm, the teens write most of the scenes themselves. Many are humorous, such as the one they call “Never Judge a Person by Their Pants.”
“The teachers love that one,” says troupe member Jenny Dolan of Hoffman Estates, a junior at Fremd High School in Palatine. “It’s about not judging people and being open to new people.”
Others have a more serious tone, and some include monologues, such as the scene on eating disorders, when the character talks about how it feels to have her illness.
Red Clark of Barrington, a senior at Barrington High School, is starting his third year in the troupe. He says his favorite scene is the one on students with special needs and the discrimination they sometimes face. Both the harasser and the special needs student have heartfelt monologues.
“In every performance, I’ve had people come up and say they’ve been treated like that or have seen people treated that way,” Clark says. “Once, two teachers cried after the scene because I had a character that reminded them of someone in their class.”
The REALITY Troupe was started in 1994 by a counselor at OMNI who had an interest in theater. This year, the troupe has expanded from 13 to 18 members so that more requests for performances can be accommodated. The kids can be excused from school only one day per month to do their shows. Last year, 15 to 20 requests had to be turned down, says Kohler, who will take half of the cast out of school on a given show day this year and therefore be able to do more shows. The cast may visit more than one school a day.
This year, the Reality Troupe will do roughly 60 shows; that’s more than double the number of shows they were doing two years ago. Although the troupe charges no set fee, it does ask for a donation to cover the cost of transportation (usually $150 to $300). If a group can’t pay, OMNI will pick up the cost.
Grimm is a professional actor in Chicago who works part time with the troupe. During a recent Monday night rehearsal at Wheeling Park District, he was leading the teens through theater games. In one game, the young actors talked gibberish to each other but conveyed their ideas through body language and facial expressions.
Kohler, who works full time with the troupe, says she and Grimm look for a couple of different things when selecting the troupe members. This year, about 50 teens tried out in the spring. Cast members need to re-audition each year.
“We look for kids who have an interest in the dramatic arts, either music or acting or dancing,” she says, “as well as kids who have an interest in doing service for the community. They also have to pledge to be drug free.
“Some have been in counseling before and want to share their healing message. Others are already leaders in their school and want to continue that on a higher level.
“Some come in wanting to be actors and end up the year saying that (the acting experience) was the least important thing they got from it. They say they’ve found this incredible group of people they’ve worked with and learned from. They really learn to self-explore.”
Kohler believes the troupe gives students “straight talk from people they can relate to: their peers.” She says it also builds self-confidence in its cast members. She recalls one teen last year who auditioned with no previous acting experience and said during his interview that he wanted to join so he could be part of a group.
“He was very shy. His parents have told me he’s now choosing to do oral presentations at school,” she says. “He’s evolved into a strong actor and an even stronger person.”
Schools are given a list of scenes and can choose the ones they think will be most beneficial to their students. Many are interested in the drug and alcohol abuse scenes. Hoffman Estates High School chose that topic, along with a party scene on peer pressure.
“Our kids can spit right back to us all of the information on the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” Kopfman says, “but here were kids saying, `We’ve chosen to live drug free and we can do it.’ It strengthened the idea you can have a drug-free, alcohol-free lifestyle.”
Some of the scenes are recycled from the previous years. New issues the group hopes to tackle this year include peer mediation and miscommunication with parents.
“We take things from our own lives, or something we know is on kids’ minds,” Dolan says. “We improvise, then pick it to pieces and make a scene.”
Dolan has performed in community theater and school shows but says the REALITY Troupe experience is unique.
Being in the group and acting out different roles, she says, “heightens your awareness. You pay more attention to life. It’s like seeing things in color instead of black and white. Being in the group has definitely had a big impact on me.”
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For information on auditioning for the troupe or booking the troupe for a performance, call 847-537-6677, ext. 25.
