Be

Kid-written play explores struggle toward adulthood

By Michelle Gilles, for the Boulder Daily Camera
July 10, 2001
Original article here

Be yourself. Be who you want to be. Just be.

Being in its various manifestations is the focus of the original play entitled "BE" by Jennifer Berry and her troupe of 18 kids.

The play explores youths' passage into adulthood through a plot mechanism that has teenagers auditioning for the part of being an adult.

"We wrote about our bodies, peer pressure, friendship and embarrassing moments that teenagers have and kids have," said Alyssa Scharf, a 12-year-old Baseline Middle School student, with dark-brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail for rehearsal. "She (Berry) then pulls parts out about being an adolescent and auditioning for the part of adulthood and realizing that being a kid is fun ... and you shouldn't rush it. We realize that at the end (of the play). We just want to be."

The young actors have been working six hours a day, five days a week for six weeks in preparation for "BE," which will play at the Nomad Theater, 1410 Quince, Boulder, on July 25 and July 26 at 8 p.m. as part of the Nomad Theater's Summer Training Academy.

Every morning starts with the cast sitting in a circle, called the sacred circle, on the black painted stage. They each tell the person sitting beside them what they appreciates about them. Then they dance, learn drama and rehearse.

As the dance segment begins, Katy Ellis-Hill's foot taps to the sound of Janet Jackson.

"Acting is always something I've been drawn to but I enjoy the dance," said Katy, a 14-year-old Fairview High School freshman. "Writing about peer pressure and friends and things like that has been difficult for us and good for us. I don't worry about failure because she (director Berry) is showing us that everyone makes a mistake. I'm OK with trying this even if I don't do well."

Berry brings her training, teaching philosophy and memory of what it was like to struggle with teen anxiety to the summer workshop of 16 girls and two boys, ranging in age between 10 and 14.

"When I was an adolescent, I was a pimply-faced awkward teenager and now I really feel like I'm giving back," said Berry, a playwright, actor and professor at the University of Colorado. Berry participated in a similar theater program as a youth. "I wanted them to explore and celebrate this place in their lives; to explore their creativity and have them realize they didn't want to be at a 9 to 5 job, yet."

The kids are apparently getting the message.

"Every morning my mom's going to work, but then I say, 'I have to go to dance.' And I know that she doesn't think it's that hard, but it is," Holly Janson said, a 14-year-old Erie Middle Senior High. "... Through this time you grow up and find yourself somehow."

Just to be.