2 6 ▼ S e p te m b e r I S S I ▼ Je s t out
e aft
tertainment
presents
FEAR/, PHOBIA/
& FAN TA/IE / 1
Gorilla Theatre
Street youth create theater as part of Outside-In program
a b en efit for Cascade A ids Project
by Sandra de Helen
Don’t Miss the Party of the Century
featuring THE 1 1 « «
dance music by TURNTABLE MARY’S
and an outgoing COSTUME CONTES!'
OCTOBER 2G, 1991 9PM
3 2 5 0 NW Y eo n A v e n u e
For More inform ation Call 220-5907
T ickets are available at:
A rtichoke Music
CC Slaughters
Willamette
Kin hers
Mielt KXmAWJ
J cl \y Bean
THE ( Jill) HEAIHAVVN HOI EL
Ladd’s Kditions
Music Millenium
I lie 1991 Host Com m ittee
Ticket Master
D owiiey Insurance Agency
Turntable Mary’s
N oia W ilken, CPA
orilla Theatre opened for Zoa Smith
at the Main Auditorium in a benefit
performance last month for the home­
less women and street youth of Port­
land.
Gorilla Theatre is a peer education program
operated by Outside-In, a downtown social serv­
ice agency. In the past year, 80 street youth have
participated in this project which was developed
to educate yçung
people on the street
about AIDS, HIV
infection, and other
pertinent issues.
The night I
saw the group per­
form, there were six
young men and one S A N D R A D E H E I E N
young woman on stage. They performed three
original skits. They also delivered three mono­
logues. All the material was specifically written
in order to educate kids on the street about the
dangers of unsafe sex and dirty needles.
In “Little Red Riding Hood,” a young man
with a shaved head and a Top Gun jacket and
jeans sat on the edge of the stage and narrated the
story in a gentle, shy voice. The Big Bad Wolf
(AIDS) loomed over the others, wearing a black
cloak covered with words that indicated his
threats. Red skipped in wearing a red cloak, and
proceeded to have a party, complete with drugs
and sex, in Grandma’s house while Grandma
was vacationing in Tahiti.
Fortunately for all, one young man would
catch the warning words from the narrator and
suggest to the others why and how they could
protect themselves.
In the second skit, a young woman was
approached for sex, but refused to deliver unless
the young man wore a condom. He didn’t have
one, and he felt that if she insisted that he wear
one, she should have to buy it. She, however,
was quite firm that if he wanted to have sex, it
was his responsibility to provide and wear a
condom. He enters a store and quietly, with a
great deal of embarrassment, requests condoms
from the store clerk, who in turn gets on the
loudspeaker and asks for ‘Trojan Juniors.” This
turns out to be the blue-light special, and the poor
young man is mortified.
He is approached by one of his friends who
asks if he isn’t embarrassed to be obtaining con­
doms in such a public manner. Of course he is,
but what is he to do? Well, the other young man
explains, Outside-In hands them out free.
The third skit was the most creative of the
evening. The youth, themselves, created Pioneer
Square by having one of their number freeze in
the appropriate pose, holding an umbrella. An­
other couple created a mugging-in-progress; yet
another was a heterosexual couple in an embrace;
one young man played air guitar to the sounds in
his head; and the last one was a stand-up comic/
interviewer in quest of information regarding
AIDS.
The comic, using such lines as “scared sex­
less,” drew a great deal of laughter with his
clever expressions, body language and excellent
timing. He introduced himself later in a mono­
logue as Lubendez Costa and said that he likes
Gorilla Theatre because it provides a good out­
let for his energy — which apparently is abun­
dant.
The other monologues were delivered by
Ghost and his brother Willie. Ghost did an im­
provised rap song about AIDS, and Willie talked
about the Greenhouse, Outside-In, and other
youth service agencies.
The youth of Gorilla Theatre took tremen­
dous onstage risks (such as Ghost’s improvised
rap, which he had never done for an audience
before that night) and were warmly received.
Their material was clever, witty and informative.
Gorilla Theatre is directed by Rachael Silverman,
coordinator of Outside In’s needle exchange
program.
-
Another part of Outside In’s youth service
is the creative writing program. One young
woman, Selah, read three original poems titled
“The Holiday Spirit,’’ “The World of Love,” and
“My Own Personal Hell.”
The first piece depicted the darker side of
the holidays with pathos and humor. The second
was a look at economic discrepancies in our so­
ciety that cause so much hurt, but are balanced
with the love available to us all from each other.
Finally, “My Own Personal Hell” told the story
of a young woman who doesn’t know if she’s “in
hell or a Greyhound Bus.” At the end of her
reading, Selah received a standing ovation from
an audience, who recognized that what they had
just heard came straight from her heart.
Gorilla Theatre will continue to bring its
message to street youth around Portland as long
as we continue to put our young people into the
streets.
Transition Projects and Outside-In are
doing what they can to shelter our homeless
women and youth. The benefit performance
drew less than one hundred people, which meant
less than one hundred dollars went to these wor­
thy projects, in spite of the courageous and tal­
ented efforts of Gorilla Theatre, Selah, and Zoa
Smith. (See August 1991 issue for more about
Zoa Smith.) However, donations are accepted
anytime — even if you missed the performance.
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