
The incarcerated youth of the juvenile detention center, Camp David Gonzales, will perform with the storytelling group, Tales By The Sea, on Dec. 2 at the camp in Malibu.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
The performance space is an amphitheatre in a sunny, park-like setting, tempered with barbwire strung along the tops of brick and cement walls. Local resident and actress Susie Duff yelled out directions like a drill sergeant, albeit softened with maternal concern.
“Vince, my angel! Let Jesus establish the action. Give him his moment in the sun!”
The boys scrambled for the next scene set-up.
“Sergio, you’re talking to the cement!” Duff shouted. “Be happy, guys. If the audience feels sorry for you, then we’re finished!”
The young men working with Duff, were rehearsing for their upcoming performance on Dec. 2, which will take place at Camp David Gonzales, a juvenile detention center run by the Los Angeles County Probation Department, located in the mountains of Malibu.
They call their improvisational group, Locked Up in Malibu. The group has performed in the past at Malibu Stage Co. and at Malibu United Methodist Church, where they teamed up with Tales By The Sea, a professional story-telling troupe from Malibu. This time around, Locked Up, in conjunction with Tales By The Sea, will present “Time and Again,” their take on improvised reality meets formal legend.
The brainchild of local Duff and Malibu storyteller Ann Buxie, the idea of the show is to provide a nexus for professional performers, young men who traditionally have had no voice and a community who may have lost its ear for the spoken narrative.
Many of the young men in the group are looking at several more years in lock-up and see Duff’s improv class as a way to have fun while learning serious life skills.
“Doing improv taught me that you can accept everything, but you don’t have to suffer,” said Albert, who plans on working as a plumber after he has served his time. “You can turn it around and make it a positive.”
Buxie founded the story-telling group Tales By The Sea several years ago, and has worked with professional “yarners” around the country.
“People don’t realize that storytelling is for grown ups, not just for kids,” Buxie said. “Storytelling is a centuries-old tradition.”
Noting that indigenous peoples like Hawaiians have long used tales in ritual performance, Buxie said modern society needs to return to this custom.
“We’ve become so used to our communication happening only in front of a computer that we have lost our sense of ‘talk story’,” Buxie said. “And this is an essential part of our self-identity.”
Self-identity is an integral element in Duff’s work as well.
“The kids that I work with at Camp David Gonzales are natural actors,” Duff said. “Their lives have been about lies and adaptation to danger. I can’t teach them improv technique fast enough.”
Locked Up in Malibu is one of several programs being offered through the probation department to prepare the young men at the center to “transition out to real life,” explained Fernando Montes-Rodriquez, a juvenile detention facilitator. A product of the system himself, Montes-Rodriguez said he believes that programs grounded in the arts are the key to successful adaptation outside the center.
“Our recidivism rate for kids who go through these programs is way down,” he said.
Duff said she believes a critical principle of well-done improv is a tool for leading a successful life on the outside.
“Don’t deny. That is our number one rule in improv as entertainment,” she said. “You have kids here who are masters of denial and they can’t use that trick anymore. You have to go with what you are given onstage in a positive and productive way. If you can adapt that to your real life, you have a chance at really succeeding at something in the outside world.”
Duff said she is hopeful her students have learned how to incorporate this fundamental idea into their ongoing relationships.
“Besides being funny, these kids have become walking conflict-resolution experts,” she said.
Jerome (last names are withheld to protect the privacy of the young men) is planning on attending a community college upon his release and said, “Susie encourages us as individuals. We’re not just losers.”
Another boy commented, “I’ve been called lots of things in my life, but I’ve never been called an actor before.”
Some of the students will be performing for the first time in their lives.
“This is the first time my family has ever seen me do something like this,” José said.
When asked if they were nervous at the prospect of acting silly in front of strangers, the students grinned and denied any impending stage fright.
“No, we just get our game face on,” Jerome said. “It’s great to show what we can do when we act.”
Duff and Buxie said they look forward to the opportunity to blast some preconceived notions of what to expect with a performance they acknowledge as unusual.
“We’ll have a captive audience who might not have ever had the chance to hear these guys’ stories,” Buxie said. “And when you hear their stories, you start to care about them. Storytelling nourishes compassion.”
“Time and Again” is free and open to the public and reservations may be made by calling Wendy Diaz at 818.222.1192, extension 252. Advance reservations for the performance at 2 p.m. on Dec. 2 are required by Nov. 28. Refreshments, prepared by the youth from Camp David Gonzales, will be served after the show.