BPA looking back at those high school years

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Then as now, teen concerns remain the same, Fogell believes.

Adults and teens may not be able to “walk in each others’ moccasins” – but a Bainbridge Performing Arts workshop performance invites them to try on the footwear for an evening.

Created by BPA theater school director Steven Fogell, the E.Y.E.S. Project (Emplowering Youth, Enlightening Society) seeks to span the generation gap with a presentation of tales of high school years submitted by current students and graduates.

Fogell invites submission of stories for inclusion in the next August’s performance, when graduates’ stories will be read by young people, and youth tales will find adult readers.

“I’m starting to receive peoples’ writings,” Fogell said. “It’s very exciting.”

Fogell conceived the notion as a way to better communication between adults and kids, he says.

“My biggest mission is just getting to show that what happens with modern day teens is what happened to adults when they were teens,” he said. “My biggest thing is to open up that door of communication, of people being aware of that.”

Fogell will arrange he writing into a sequence that contrasts lighter and darker stories.

While parts won’t be cast in a traditional sense, Fogell says he will look for the right voice for a given story, so that the narrative is clearly presented.

Bolstered by a grant from the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council and endorsement from Just Know, Fogell is planning to augment the show with poetry and artwork by Teen Center kids, and Fogell may also include young musicians.

A backdrop of statistics about island youth will be part of the show as well, Fogell says.

Fogell’s hypothesis that the high school years contain a core of commonality is being confirmed by the writing turned in, he says.

“And that, right there, hits the mark of what I was trying to achieve by getting this information,” he said.

“Drugs might be different, politics, religion – aspects might be different, but when you get down to the core of what people go through, it is basically the same.”

Another common theme, Fogell says, is that revisiting high school can be an emotional journey; as people are writing their articles, many have told Fogell that it’s difficult to write about, because the project is triggering memories.

“I think it develops empathy for the kids,” Fogell said. “For the kids, it opens a door to looking at adults in a different way, too.

“I think they’ll be amazed that adults went through those experiences.”

The project to unite adults and youth in understanding of the pressures and pleasures of the high school years makes so much sense, Fogell believes, that he’s surprised no one’s done it before.

“There’s so many studies about kids and psychological effects.

“But some of it’s just those basic ‘growing things’ we all go through.”