This is Our Youth

This is it. The H1N1 epidemic has gone too far. This whole week of my tour has been cancelled because of the flu. I had food poisoning and the other two actors had what they believe is the ole piggy virus. We are all on the mend, but this, the third day off, is a hard one. I really miss interacting with the kids and seeing their minds wake up as we challenge them to think for themselves!

This week so far I have done a ton of laundry, watched the entire season of KINGS and eaten about a dozen chimichangas. The centrifugal force of a full tour stop has given me teacher whiplash.
The amazing thing about this job is the flood of ideas, fears, hopes and reality that flows from the high schoolers.

We do a debate about rape. Well, its not about rape, its more about artistic expression/school reputation/censorship. I play a kid who's friend was raped and expressed the incident through a painting, then was chosen to represent the school in art exhibit and I chose that painting. The other actor play a student who thinks the painting is grotesque and doesn't want the bad feelings drudged up. We describe the painting as artistic and metaphoric, but violent and raw. So then we get the kids to debate whether or not to put the painting up.

Whats incredible is that we as actors spent the better part of two weeks debating this in rehearsals and the things the kids come up with we never even came close to. Some the points we hear make it really hard to stay in character. "That happened to me and I would want my story told through that painting", or "That happened to me and I would never want my story to get out like that". Sophomores.
One thing that this job has taught me is that young people know way more about the world today than I did. But you look around at TV, movies and the media, and its everywhere. There is no buffer between adult life and the innocence of youth. MTV has a show called 16 and Pregnant. Three channels up is INTERVENTION. When I came home from school in 1994, the shows on were Saved by the Bell, MTV's The Grind and ZOOM!

We have to give our youth more credit. The see everything we see, and ofter don't have the emotional tools to deal with it or the courage to ask an adult about it.

I did another school tour about AIDS education and in 2002 there were kids that believed you could contract HIV from a movie theatre seat. That this was a risky behavior. Or that HIV could be created from the act of sex, or that oral sex was totally safe.

I think if we dismiss these young people as too naive or too fragile to hear the truth about the world, their gonna create their own answers and their own safeguards. We owe it to the next generations to arm them with the best knowledge and highest respect we can muster. These people have jobs, pain, worries and children of their own. I think we need to bring them in on the conversation.

whew.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE, we do another scene about French playwright Moliere, designed to get the kids riled up and talking so the debate gets heated. I play a sexist member of the court so I come out and just insult the whole classroom; say the kids can do my laundry, that women are inferior. I am a total fop and there is a female character that defends the kids so everyone just ends up yelling at me. In fact at a school last week, this red headed girl got so into the scene that she stood up on a table and starting calling me out! She was a sophomore and couldn't have been older than 15. I am 30, a professional actor and here I have this high school girl, totally standing up to me in this classroom ON TOP OF A TABLE getting cheered on by 25 other students! I was stuck for a second. That had never happened before. People yell and jeer at me, but this girl was Henry V! After a second I got up on the table with her and offered her a job in my garden. She eventually got down but went right to the side of the actress in the scene and kept on fighting from her side. Its amazing the courage the kids have after just a few minutes of adults listening to them

Das Bus

I have a love/hate relationship with the Bus in Denver. I love getting to work; I hate taking the bus. Except for the symphony of loonies, hard-luck cases, drunks and cute babies that always enhance, if not brighten, my day.

So last week, I'm taking the bus downtown for rehearsal. I have a very tried and true routine for waiting for the bus. Package of powdered doughnuts, can of Monster energy, the funnies. By the time I get on the bus I am usually going back through and reading all the comics that I can't stand, but can't resist reading. Maybe out of some fear that the one day "Family Circus" is actually relevant or moving will be the day I skip it. Crazy. I know.

So on this day, a crisp fall morning; and pretty sure the day after a huge Bronco win, I sit down fully prepared to follow my plan. As I situate myself on the first of the forward-facing seats, I notice this lady sitting to my left. She's middle aged, fairly well groomed, wearing a big baggy leather duster and cradling an over stuffed with-I-don't-know-what trash bag and keeping her eye on two full-sized bungee-cord-wrapped suit cases. Not totally normal, but not enough to take my mind off "Get Fuzzy".

I don't really know how to tell the rest of the story. Only to express the growing shock and amazement as I began to hear and understand her mumblings then shouts. There is no way to make sense of the conversations she was having with no one. But sitting there, not finishing my comics, I knew the things I heard were meant to be shared.

a sampling.

"John McCain is in a prison in London, paid to torture and kill him" said wryly, ironically.

"How many babies are you gonna infect, Mary?" shouted to an empty seat.

"I HAVE A TELEPHONE IN MY TEETH, LIKE A BLUE TOOTH, GET OVER IT! ...and stop listening to my conversations" a retort to a fellow bus riders request to quiet down.

This was the theme of the 45 minute bus ride from Broomfield to Lakewood, where I left my muse, still riding the bus. I wonder what was in those suitcases.

Bandwagon, you been jumped on,son!!

So I am an actor and currently I am doing a project called Living History in Denver, CO. My job is to, along with two other talented actors, go into local high schools, and through improv and debate, get kids to express their 'gut' instincts about ethical and morale issues. It is hearing the thoughts and feelings of these amazing young people that prompted me to start a blog.

I have always been passionate about politics, social problems and the defense of America's youth, but it is only now, seeing the level of anger on both sides and how it effects the future generations, that I have felt the need to put my thought out into the freaky ether.

I would love to have an account of the jaw-dropping honesty I hear from these kids, along side my own opinions and (drum roll) Jake's RTD Bus Stories. I have horrible handwriting, so maybe this will just be a really boring journal...sorry.

Please feel free to leave a comment or any questions. Good night, and good luck!

-Jake