The Virginia Avenue Project Turns 15

Originally you worked with the 52nd Street Project in New York.
Willie Reale went on to win a McCarthur Genius Grant for creating the
program. What inspired to bring this work to LA?

I was invited to spend a weekend in upstate New York to learn how to teach Playmaking from the man who’d invented it, Daniel Judah Sklar. I had performed in Playmaking plays – even directed one – but I had no idea how the kids came up with their characters or their plays. I was blown away by the process – it was creative, had great integrity, was inventive and asked all the right questions. At the time I was so fed up with my life – it had become totally centered around my career, my fame, my fortune that I thought if I spent another day with myself I’d explode. By the end of the weekend I wanted to teach kids how to write plays – then I began to think if I was going to do that I should produce their plays as well – and if I was going to do that then I should also produce plays they could act in … and if I was going to do that I might as well replicate the work the 52nd Street Project was doing in LA. So I went to Willie and told him I was his girl … and, lucky for me, he thought so, too. Lucky for me two, his ED, Marsue Cumming, moved to LA about three months after I did and she talked me through the first year. This was a particularly important happenstance because I had no idea what a grant was … I knew there were people who wrote them but I didn’t know why … especially when you could be writing a play. In retrospect it was a good thing I was so naive because I didn’t come to the work with any preconceived notions of how hard or easy it was going to be. In fact, at the time, I wasn’t so sure kids even liked me all that much – but I figured if I was myself, warts and all, then they could be themselves, warts and all … and from there we could teach each other just about anything.

When you got to LA, how did you hook up with the Santa Monica Police
Activities League? Do the police officers want to be in the plays too?

When I came out here to start the Project I had, for the first time in my professional career, the wind at my back. Dumb things happened that had Fate written all over them. I couldn’t have escaped this chapter in my life. I’d been here a week. I was living in a garage apartment that belonged to a friend. I knew I had to find a youth center. Someone told me to look in the yellow pages under Parks and Rec. In the bottom drawer of the bureau in my temporary digs was a phone book. There was one listing under Parks and Rec: The Santa Monica Police Activities League (PAL). The first phone call I made was to PAL and the person who answered, Patty Loggins, then the secretary – is now the Director. She has always had a passion for the Arts - wanted to offer them to PAL kids – so for 15 years we’ve been doing just that.

In the old days, a police officer would come to class and for the first two years when we took the kids away for a week to Ojai to rehearse their plays we’d always have a police officer with us. Actors and police officers alone together in the country during the Rodney King trial - could have been, how you say? – tense … but we were there to launch this ragtag group of kids and that humanized everybody. Anyway, very quickly PAL staff realized we knew what we were doing and the parents relaxed and the kids couldn’t wait for the next class and word got out that we were a little old but cool.

You match the kids in the program with professional theatre artists
to create short plays. How do you decide who should work with who?

I always start with a list of who might be right for whatever program I’m working on – I love making that list because it reminds me of all the great people I work with. But once it’s made I put it aside and use my intuition. Because I participate in all our classes I know the kids pretty well. I have a sense of who will do better with a man or woman. Who needs to be challenged and who needs an easy time of it. Then a volunteer will call to check in or I’ll run into someone and I’ll go, “Hey, you want to write a play for a kid?” About half way through the process I’ll make up a contact sheet and when I look at it I wonder how many of the people who have said Yes will actually end up in the show. I like the randomness of it – it unnerves the part of me that needs to feel all my ducks are in a row … and that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?

What is the goal of the mentoring? Are you training the next Dakota
Fanning?

The goal of the mentoring is to help our kids think creatively and critically about what they want to do with their lives. Even though most of our mentors are artists we are not about training the next generation of actors or writers – so no Dakota Fannings. We use the Arts to help our kids discover their hearts and minds – our mentors are there in support of that process – and the audiences who attend our productions turn the discovery into a celebration. Project shows are as full of heart as they are of possibility.

The list of mentors includes some industry heavy hitters. The kids
have been in plays written by Winnie Holzman ("Wicked", "My So Called
Life"), Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries"), Henry Bromell ("Homicide",
"Brotherhood") and loads of well know actors have acted with them: Kathey Kinney, Amy Brenneman, Kate Walsh, Roma Maffia ("Nip/Tuck"), Colin Ferguson ("Eureka") to name a few. What attracts these folks to the project?

Well, aside from the fact that working with our kids is just plain fun – our productions allow for a lot of creativity. Our production values are simple but anything is possible. The audiences are tremendously supportive and, for the most part, the material is really good. Not at all what you’d think of as children’s theatre. The artists are asked to challenge the children. Writers never write down to a kid – the kids come up to the material. I’ve seen it happen time and again – they always pull it out of the hat. It’s very validating for everybody. We sit in a circle when a show is about to end and say a sentence or two about what the experience has been like. The comment I hear most from adults is: “Now I remember why I went into the theater.” I think that’s why people get involved – to share the magical journey of putting on a play – free and clear of show biz.

All of the project mentors have professional theatre experience.
Some of them have volunteered for many years. What do you think
attracts them to the project?

I don’t know why they keep coming back – you might want to ask them. Or ask yourself since you’re one of them. My guess is they are invested in the kids. We work with our kids from the time they are six until they finish high school so the effect we have on each others’ lives is profound and long lasting. And it’s always nice to feel you’re making a difference.

The Virginia Avenue kids take a series of playwrighting workshops.
What is the most surprising thing one of them has ever written in
their play?

Now that’s about the hardest question I’ve ever been asked – short of ‘should we get divorced?’ A flood of possibilities come to mind and you want me to choose. Okay, stab in the dark – Alfonso’s play about the racist teacher who ended up drunk, homeless and bitter then accidentally fell to her death from the top of a building while trying to right a terrible wrong. Alfonso cast me in the part. He’s all grown up now – fabulous young man with a great heart. He was very shy when he came to us … didn’t think he could do anything. Then he did … and hasn’t looked back since.

Professional actors perform the kids plays. The writer sits on stage
to watch their production. How did these kids get so lucky?

The kids who are invited to write plays have been through two acting workshops and have performed in at least one play. A good playwright understands that actors send their words and ideas into the universe and in order to do that well they need to feel stimulated, challenged and curious about the material. When I see the kids heading in this general direction I invite them to go through the playwriting process. At the end of ten sessions they get two professional actors and a professional director. They interview their actors then write a play for them. When the plays are produced each young writer sits at a desk on stage so the audience gets to watch the child watching professional actors performing his/her play. At the end the young writers take the final bow and the celebration of their hearts and minds continues.

In addition to running the Virginia Avenue Project, you act write
plays, books and poetry, and create mosaics. What your next creative
endeavor?

I just got involved in a workshop that is using improv, movement and a variety of performance art techniques to delve into our ancestry – individual and collective. I have no idea how long it’s going to take us to come up with the material but the ultimate goal is performance. It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this – it’s very liberating – but my favorite part of all is I’m not the one in charge.

When I looked you up on IMDB, I discovered that you wrote episodes of
the Paper Chase. I loved that show! You also played a part in
"Indictment: The McMartin Trial". What memories stand out from
these experiences?

‘Paper Chase’ was a long time ago – I was married and living in upstate New York. Only one line of what I wrote ended up in the show … I didn’t really know what I was doing then … on just about every level. “Indictment: The McMartin Trial” was a great experience – I got to know a couple of wonderful actors who are still involved with the Virginia Avenue Project. I pretty much pick people up every where I go – you never know when they’re going to come in handy.

When you take a break from working with the kids, where is your favorite place to
eat in LA?

Tender Greens on Culver Blvd. in Culver City. All the food is locally grown and you can eat healthy and well for $10. I love everything about it – including the line out the door.

Where is your favorite place to visit in LA?

My home. We just ripped out our front yard and put in a vegetable garden. We sit in it at the end of the day – neighbors stop by – we trade tales and tomatoes … But you used the word Visit, didn’t you? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the garden at the Getty – the way it forces you to walk slowly down, down the path – taking in plants, water and rocks as you go and then ending up at the azalea pool – throwing in a penny for good luck – not that I haven’t had my share of it – but it’s important to pass it along.

Visiting the Korean Bell in San Pedro.

The Virginia Avenue Project will celebrate it's fifteen years at the Hotel Casa Del Mar on Thursday, October 4. If you are ever in doubt about the power of mentoring, check out the Virginia Avenue Project.

photo of Leigh Curran by Mary Ann Halpin
photos of Project kids and mentors by Julie Wolfson