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High school students who use drama to communicate a message of tolerance and hope to their peers now aim to expand and show problem-solving workshops to community leaders.
"The performance is the catalyst," said Ray Moffitt, executive director of the Aurora-based teen drama group, Messages Which Are Hopeful, or MWAH.
"It's not enough to go into a school, do a performance and leave," Moffitt said.
"We want to get community leaders there, present some issues that touch emotions and start people thinking about ways to address the problems."
The junior and senior high school students have performed before more than 50,000 students in the past year and a half.
One of the first schools to benefit from the troupe's expanded program was Lake Shore Catholic Academy, 510 W. 10th St., Waukegan, where 315 pupils in 5th through 8th grades crowded into their gym last week to participate.
Sitting among them were the mayors and fire chiefs of Waukegan and North Chicago, Cheri Nowajewski of the YWCA of Northern Illinois, and Navy Adm. Mark Gafton of Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
MWAH, a not-for-profit organization founded in June 1993, can customize a performance to its audience, drawing on a repertoire of skits, songs and dances that address issues such as gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy, racial intolerance and domestic violence.
Troupe members write the skits during rehearsals at Fourth Street Methodist Church in Aurora, Moffitt said. The troupe members start with a theme and decide what the message should be.
It is the group's diversity, he said, that makes for the breadth of its message.
"We wanted a mix of different cultures, ages and backgrounds, because that is what the world is," Moffitt said, adding that the members of the multiracial troupe come from Chicago and the western suburbs.
"Because of the workshops that the performers lead after the show, we need kids who can do more than just perform," Moffitt said. "We want kids who have learned how to deal with some of life's problems and who can use the performing arts to communicate that."
Moffitt said those youngsters cannot be found just through auditions, so in forming the troupe, he called schools such as Howland School of the Arts and Curie High School of the Creative and Performing Arts in Chicago.
Four troupe members are from one family, the Renzettis of Oswego. Moffitt said he saw one son performing in Aurora and ended up signing that youth and his sister and two brothers. Moffitt adds to the troupe when members take friends to rehearsals.
Jerric McKinney, 16, came to Moffitt's attention after the youth rejected the gangs in Aurora and decided to be a good example to youngsters in his neighborhood. McKinney's experiences are used in a skit about gangs.
"I think our message is that you can change things when you make a mistake," McKinney said, "and not to judge people by the color of their skin."
Leticia Andrate, a 15-year-old student at Curie High School, said she joined the group to "give a positive message and (be a) good role model on how to work out the everyday problems of life."
Tara Stutes, 13, of Aurora Christian School, said, "We have got to get the message about domestic violence across."
The Lake Shore Catholic Academy audience laughed as the cast speculated on the absurdity of a world full of identical boys named Michael.
They watched in silence as a father berated his son. The room filled with the sound of chanting, "Increase the Peace!" during a rap number.
"We would rather not have a nicely wrapped ending to a piece as a rule," Moffitt said. "We can finish it up when the audience gets a chance to talk about what is relevant in their own lives."
Moffitt acknowledged that the expanded program does not always work as planned. Some of the community leaders who attended last week's performance in Waukegan were unable to attend the discussions that followed.
Lake Shore Assistant Principal Jane Halligan said she hopes to bring the group of officials together again in the next few weeks to see if cooperation can improve conditions for her students, many of whom come from poor homes.
Halligan said that, for example, she would like community suggestions on how to upgrade the school library. She also said she would like to invite the performing group back this winter for a program aimed at parents.
Donald Weakley, Waukegan director of government services, saw the performance and said he would try to attend future meetings with the school.
"I thought it was well done," Weakley said.
"The message about prejudice and family problems was getting through to the children. I was sitting there thinking how many of these children don't have supportive care at home."
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