How are high school years defined? Television shows them as hip, magazines paint them as beautiful. Bruce Springsteen called them the “Glory Days.” Those teenaged years are often idealized, but actual teens living through them often have a different perspective.
Real teen points of view were recently brought to light through PCPA’s Arts Outreach.
My Life=Art is a production about what it’s like to be a teen, from a teen’s perspective. Now in its fifth year, Arts Outreach is an interactive theater project that runs in two phases. The first is a series of workshops run by a PCPA artist who helps students with the writing process. In Phase 2, the students’ writing is distilled into a touring production by PCPA directors and actors. The production then returns to the students’ school, where it’s performed for the entire school population.
Director of Education and Outreach for PCPA, Leo Cortez, started the Outreach program from what was PCPA in the Schools. He said the program allows for student expression, which is key.
“The importance of this project is that it gives voice to individuals that are not heard, and the courage to speak out, and the attentiveness of others to listen, and the platform to present it all,” Cortez said.
Lompoc and Nipomo high schools recently mounted performances for invited guests. Their presentations sprang from anonymous responses to questions aimed at students talking about their lives. Though both plays were presented differently, they each had the same goal: to offer a glimpse of what it’s like to be a teenager in today’s world.
Some stories were timeless, revealing unrequited crushes, pressure to live up to the high expectations of high-pressure parents, and body and self-confidence issues. All were peppered with the LOL and WTF text acronyms that have become a regular part of youthspeak. Other stories offered more ominous signs of modern times; sexuality issues, homelessness and dealing with the loss of a home, family dynamics, death, drugs, and the effects of gangs and drive-by shootings. They were, however, stories to which all the teens were able to relate.
Cortez said that even though each student has his or her own experiences, the underlying expression of feelings was just about universal.
“One student said, ‘It was so hard to find the things I wrote because I see and feel what all those students were saying,’” Cortez said. “So they all can just relate to those experiences.”
Yes, Arts Editor Shelly Cone was once a teen. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 3-10, 2011.