Babies Having Babies
Play offers questions,
not answers

by Julie Mitchell

The Aloha Performing Arts Company (APAC) and the Aloha Teen Theatre (ATT) are on the road again this year with yet another socially conscious play. Babies Having Babies, by Kathryn Montgomery and Jeffrey Auerbach, tours to several West Hawai'i intermediate and high schools before culminating on May 11 with one free public performance at the Aloha Theatre.
The play features five very different young women who, finding themselves together in a teen pregnancy counseling session, come to common ground and begin to understand the impact of their choices.
"It's a very frank and honest discussion about sex and about teen pregnancy," says director Patricia 'Iolana. "The reason I like the script is because it doesn't give you any answers. There's no nice, neat Hollywood ending. You don't know if they'll keep their babies, have abortions, or give up their babies for adoption."
The teen mothers-to-be are: Lisa (played by Christi Halverson and understudied by BriAnna Johnson), a preppie senior who is more than she seems; Kelly (Elise Levin), an all-American cheerleader; Max (Jaquelynn Collier), an outspoken and "trashy-chic"; Brenda (Chamika Fujioka), low-income and seven months pregnant; and Mary Pat (Sandra Burck), intelligent, plain-looking and within a month of having her baby.
The characters got pregnant in various ways. Max was date raped, and Kelly became pregnant the first time she had sex with her boyfriend.
"We were all different…but one thing's for sure… we were so stupid when it came to sex," says Lisa at the beginning of the play.
Other characters are: Henry, the scruffy custodian (Eugene Gall); Mrs. Chapman, the pregnancy counselor (alternately portrayed by 'Iolana and Jillian Collier); and a hot-shot pizza delivery boy (Louis Jaeger).
Originally staged in 1986 as a CBS Schoolbreak Special directed by Martin Sheen, Babies Having Babies was awarded four Daytime Emmeys and the Nancy Susan Reynolds Award for Sexual Responsibility in the Media, among other awards.
The play highlights the five young women, with the adult counselor only appearing at the end, after the characters have basically worked things out among themselves.
"Teens take advice from their peers rather than their parents and adult role models," 'Iolana says, noting that the best way to meaningfully reach teen audiences is through teen actors on stage.
The actors' parents had to read the script and sign an agreement to allow their children to be in the play.
"I only had one girl who couldn't audition because of her family's religious beliefs," relates 'Iolana. "We are running into family ethics, which is why I'm glad this show doesn't take a stand.... The play presents all the issues and lets the audience make up their own minds. We're not making a judgment, either pro life or pro choice."
She believes the actors are making a strong statement by being in this show. "They're passionate not only about performing but about getting this work across to their friends.... They're dedicated 100 percent."
The five leads, ages 13 to 16, have made sacrifices to be in the play. While touring, they miss school and have to make up assignments. One actor gave up a job because of her intensive school and rehearsal schedule, which includes five weeks of rehearsing, five days a week. Another actor heard rumors that she herself, rather than her character, had been raped.
'Iolana, who has served as board president and produced for APAC, is now the senior advisor for Aloha Teen Theatre. The group includes 25 youngsters, ages 12 to 21, who hold monthly meetings and script readings, do theatrical workshops, and participate as cast and crew in APAC productions. This winter, ATT will put on a main stage production, handling everything from script selection to staging, at the Aloha Theatre, which 'Iolana hopes will become an annual event.
In 2006, ATT toured "Bang, Bang, You're Dead," a play about school violence that 'Iolana also directed. Two years in the planning, that show set the stage for the current production and reflects APAC's commitment to having a social impact in the community.
"I was approached by Jerry Tracy, APAC's artistic director, earlier this year to go on the road again because of the success of last year's show," recounts 'Iolana. "We made announcements, held auditions, and there was a lot of positive response from the kids. This is something they're interested in, as they were with gun violence."
Several social service agencies have also expressed interest in ATT's productions, asking them to tour county- and statewide, but more funding is needed to make this a reality.
Babies Having Babies began its two-week Kona-side tour on April 30. It will be performed at Kealakehe Intermediate School, West Hawai'i Explorations Academy, and Hualalai Academy; at press time, negotiations were underway at Kealakehe High and Konawaena Intermediate and High Schools.
'Iolana hopes that parents of those students who see the school shows come to the free night.
"We're dropping this petal in the pond." she says, "and now it's up the rest of West Hawai'i to keep the ripples going. We're starting the conversation, and they need to continue it, for all our children.
Babies
Having
Babies
Aloha Theatre, Kainaliu
Fri., May 11, 7:30 p.m.
Free
Info: 322-2122
alohatheatre.com

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