‘Bangin’ ’ reality hits close to home
Walltown theater’s play shows result of gang violence

By Susan Broili

The rehearsal of "Bangin' " seems especially charged -- and not just by the heat in the Walltown Children's Theatre with the air-conditioning on the fritz.

Emotions run deep.

The theater's young cast members, ages 15 to 18, feel the pressure of taking the show out of town for the first time as part of the highly selective lineup at this week's National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem.

Then there's the play's subject and origin: gang violence.

Theater co-director Joseph Henderson wrote the play in response to the death of Catrina Carr. The 15-year-old was killed on April 14, 2001, during a gang-related shooting in which she was not the intended target.

The year she died, Carr was in Henderson's drama class at Rogers-Herr Middle School.

"I remember her smile. She was really an engaging young lady," he said.

After the shooting, Carr's boyfriend said the bullet had been intended for him because the gunman mistakenly thought he was a member of a rival gang.

Close to home

For Jessica Jones, 17, who plays Katrina, a character based on Carr, the results of gang violence also have hit close to home recently.

A friend of hers died just three days short of high school graduation this year. The 18-year-old was college-bound, but also was a gang member who wanted out.

To get out, Jones said, he had either to shoot himself or his parents. He chose to shoot himself, she said.

"I have to cry in certain scenes and I think of him," Jones said. "... If I just reach one person, I think I've done my job."

While the cast rehearsed on a scorching early evening last week, a woman from the Walltown community who lost her son to gang violence sat in a metal chair near the door and watched.

As actress Erika Walton rocked her dying daughter in the play, the woman gently rocked her own body back and forth in her chair.

The same woman went up to Walton after another rehearsal and said her son, who did not belong to a gang, accidentally was killed two years ago because he happened to be with some gang members, the actress said.

"Tears were flowing down her face," Walton said. "Meeting her sobered me. It helps me to try to be as honest as I can."

Embodying grief

Walton returns from her home in Chicago to play Ms. Perry, Katrina's mother, the same role she played in the original production of "Bangin' " in April 2002 at the Carolina Theatre.

At rehearsal, she works to embody the grief of a mother whose child is dying. Her voice is frantic as she pleads: "Oh God, when will this long line of murdered children ever end?"

Her final, blood-curdling scream: "Katrina!" ends the scene.

Katrina's last words, to her boyfriend Tony, speak of the tragedy of young lives ended needlessly: "I can't feel my dreams. Where are they?"

Henderson urges other cast members to dig deep for the emotions that fuel their characters.

"You've got to feel like a snake," he tells Jose Velasquez.

Velasquez plays the sinister gang member Mo, who urges Tony, a new member of the same gang, to carry out the order to shoot a police officer's daughter, Mary (played by Mary LeSene). She happens to be Katrina's best friend.

In their ensuing struggle for Tony's gun, Mo accidentally shoots Katrina.

Other young cast members are Andre Thorpe as Cruse, Katrina's brother and a gang member, and Damien Lee as C. Sharp. Henderson as Officer Cole and Paul Garrett as Pastor Daniel complete the cast.

Touched by acting

Past productions of the play have drawn much response.

"A lot of kids know some one in that situation," Henderson said. "The audience can really identify with the characters onstage and what they're going through."

"People were really touched by it," said Dominique Reade, 18, a recent graduate of Kestrel Heights Charter School, who plays Tony.

"One guy came up afterwards and said, 'My cousin saw it [the play] and said he wasn't going to be in a gang anymore,' " Reade said.

"I wanted to show that the costs of joining a gang are too high and hopefully it will persuade a student who is thinking about joining a gang not to," Henderson said.

An anti-gang rally took place before the first performances of the play three years ago. Officials have recognized the power of such a play to reach young people and show them, within the safe context of a theater performance, the devastating effects of gang violence.

The Durham Police Department paid for a number of tickets to send young people to see the play. A grant from the Governor's Commission on Crime Prevention funded performances of "Bangin' " last year at the Durham Arts Council.

On the road

"It certainly has helped me see the role the Walltown Children's Theatre can play in the community -- what we can do to be effective and useful to people," Henderson said.

He and his wife, Cynthia Penn-Henderson, founded the theater in October 2000. She created the choreography for this play.

The Winston-Salem festival will be good experience for the theater's young actors, Henderson said.

"We thought it was a really wonderful opportunity for the kids to see other major theater companies in order to measure their skills and grow," he said.

In addition to money from the National Black Theatre Festival, the Walltown Children's Theatre received grants from the Triangle Community Foundation and Duke University Office of Community Affairs to enable it to participate.

Since producers and actors from across the country will be at the festival, the event offers an opportunity to reach an even broader audience after the festival, Henderson said.

"We want to take it on the road so it can reach more kids," Henderson said.

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