Since 2000, Project Non-Violence has given inner city youth the opportunity to create performances reflecting their own experience and the lives of their peers. Those lives have often been difficult. Many of the participants come from troubled homes, if they have homes at all. Intended as an outlet for their imagination as well as an alternative to the drugs and criminality of their environment, Project Non-Violence has been directed and organized from the beginning by John Schneider, an internationally acclaimed Milwaukee actor, playwright and stage director. (Full disclosure: he is also assistant A&E editor of the Shepherd Express.)
“The North Division High School Boys and Girls Club sees Project Non-Violence as an extension of their peer mentoring program,” says Schneider, speaking of the Project's current partner. “The participants become mentors by making a play talking about the sad experiences they have endured or witnessed—violence, ghastly family situations, homelessness, early parenthood—and, hopefully, helping the audience to overcome or to avoid these things.”
This year's show, A Time for Change, takes its title from the hopes of the participants. “It's all their work—it's all their voices,” explains Schneider. “Many have recently chosen to change the direction of their lives and that's the biggest subject matter for A Time for Change.”
The performances include a series of skits, dances, poems and original songs and raps. Schneider's assistant director, Dwaun Bailey, has been with Project Non-Violence for nine years, since he was 14. About to graduate from Marquette University, he is one of the Project's success stories. Stage manager Aaron Cotton, 17, has been with the Project for two years. Other cast members include Duece Cleghorn, Ebony Hobbs, Aureaulis Paris, Donta Gill, Raven Grayer-Richardson, Mariah Hampton, Anquette Kirksey, Melody McCurtis and Michael Porter.
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Scenes include a comedy about a weed-head mom unable to feed her children properly, and a serious classroom argument over the meaning of the words “I'm Grown.” Personal monologues about time spent in gangs and in prison are included, as are poems addressing the anguish and isolation of a sexual abuse victim, and the question of motivation to change. Original songs, dance and raps complete the program.
“My role is to guide the process through which the young people discover what it is they feel is important to speak to in their performance,” says Schneider, adding that the method is the same as what was employed by his long-running company, Theatre X. “Some of the past participants in Project Non-Violence have gone on to college and were awarded scholarships. Some became involved with their churches. Some continue to struggle as single parents and under-employed members of the community. None that I know of are in trouble, which is an accomplishment for which I give them much credit.”
A Time for Change will be performed 2 p.m., July 27 at North Division High School auditorium. The performance is free and open to the public. The project is sponsored in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Other sponsors include Crime Strategies Initiative and Safe & Sound.
