Mabelle Reynoso Teaching Artist

Cecelia Kouma Executive Director

To advance

literacy, creativity, communication, and

empathy

by empowering individuals to voice their stories through theatre.

Mission

Schools

Seniors Foster Care

Military Immigrants Incarcerated

Juvenile Hall

WHY THEATRE?

EXPLORES HUMAN BEHAVIOR

TEACHES US

ABOUT OURSELVES AND OTHERS

TO WRITE A PLAY, ONE MUST…

• Identify the character’s want

• Examine back-story

• Practice problem-solving

• Examine lessons learned

• Decide the ending

THROUGH THIS, WE…

• Understand motivations

• Discover connections

• Reclaim our stories

• Learn alternative behaviors

• Shape our futures

COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT

• Improve communication skills

• Expand emotional literacy

• Develop empathy

• Build a community of acceptance

• Involve everyone

• Take us out of comfort zone

• Practice social interaction

• Are FUN!

GROUP EXERCISES

WARM UP EXERCISES

• Zip, Zap, Zop … A-ooga

• Share something we wouldn’t guess by looking at you

• Join me if …

WHY FOCUS ON ADDICTION?

A SAMPLE 10-MINUTE PLAY

TOOL STORY

By Tyler C. & Larry H.

Playwrights at

East Mesa Reentry Facility

M.C. Hammer ……… Cortez Johnson

Klein Screwdriver … Albert Park

WD-40 ……………….. Nick Fox

CHARACTERS & ACTORS

U.S. Attorney’s Office

SAY San Diego

DO SOMETHING ABOUT METH

Office of U.S. Attorney Southern District of California

Cindy Cipriani Outreach Director

METHAMPHETAMINE

AND THE SOUTHWEST BORDER

June 2016

Cindy Cipriani, Outreach Director

Southern District of California

Meth Labs of the 1980s

18

Mexican Super Labs

Chemicals Used to Make Meth

20

Troubling Increases

• Violence by Methamphetamine Traffickers

• Use of Minor to Import Methamphetamine

• Heinous Acts of Violence by Methamphetamine Users

Table 1. Preliminary Methamphetamine Strike Force 2018 Report Card

Indicator 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

1. Total Meth-related Deaths 267 262 311 377 368

Death rate per 100,000 population 8.4 8.1 9.5 11.5 12.3

2. Emergency Dept. Discharges for Amphetamines

8,116 10,254 12,595 13,209 Not

Available

Until 2019 Rate per 100,000 population 258 321 383 402

ED Use Rate per 100,000 ED Visits 1071 1,260 1,469 1,539

3. Meth Primary Drug of Choice 4,820 4,991 4,564 4,689 4,911

Percent of All Public Drug Treatment Admits

34% 37% 36% 37% 37%

4. Positive Meth Tests

Adults Arrestees 43% 45% 49% 56% 56%

Juvenile Arrestees 10% 13% 8% 14% 11%

5. Lab Cleanup/Seizure

County Cleanup 5 4 7 8 3

DEA/NTF Seizures 0 2 2 1 1

6. Number of Misdemeanor/Felony Arrests for Meth Sales and

Possession 6,644 6,734 6,849 8,428 9,293

7. Availability Measures

"Easy to get" 83% 90% 90% 86% 90%

Price per Ounce $400-$1,200 $400-$1,200 $350-$600 $250-$450 $175-$250

Meth Seizures at Border POE 5,729 kg 5,862 kg 8,103 kg 8,706 kg 13,831 kg

8. Hotline Contacts 215 231 265 83 45

What are we missing?

• Seasoned prosecutors and full collaboration w/ dedicated law enforcement partners

• Seizing more meth and prosecuting more cases than ever before

• But despite these efforts, the consequences are increasing

– We can’t incarcerate our way out of the meth problem

Outreach

Prevention

• Anti-Smuggling Program: targets High School age youth

• U.S. Attorney & Defense Counsel Partnership targeting young adults – Visiting community colleges and faith-based groups

– Communicating the lifelong collateral consequences of felony conviction

Creative Prevention Harnessing the power of live theatre

to convey meth’s consequences

• Partnership

– SAY San Diego

– Playwrights Project

– U.S. Attorney’s Office

– McAlister Institute

– San Diego County Probation Department

Other People’s Kids By Mabelle Reynoso

A Play about the Impact of Meth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhYksWmtfw

Other People’s Kids

Patty, a single mother, worries which Ivey league her daughter Mackenzie will attend.

Gaby, a teen who works with Aaron at the salon, has done time in juvenile hall and is pregnant. Her boyfriend Jesse loves her and wants to take care of her. He has had brushes with the law as well.

Patty’s daughter, Mackenzie, struggles with meth addiction, lured in by Jesse. She befriends Sammy, a boy who lives in a meth house with his mom when he’s not on the streets.

Patty grapples with the struggles of helping her daughter. Aaron offers wise counsel revealing his own history with meth.

Jesse loses control in his struggle with meth addiction and becomes dangerous to Gaby.

He ends up in prison, where he writes to Gaby asking for forgiveness. She keeps her distance for the sake of her baby, but tucks his letter away for a possible future connection.

Sammy accepts Aaron’s offer of a haircut, as he prepares to move in with his grandmother.

RESPONSES TO OPK

• Stakeholders

• Students

• Our Playwrights at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility

PROCESS OF CREATING THE MEN’S PLAY

• Mapped journey of addiction

• Individual writing prompts

• Ensemble movement work

• Pieced writing onto map

• Read, discussed, revised

The men perform the play inside Donovan.

Finding Our Way A Play about the Journey of Addiction

Written by Donovan Playwrights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoXyNYAN0TY

LIVE PERFORMANCE

TAPED PERFORMANCE FROM SDSU

From Plot Point: Descending into Addiction

From Prompt: I AM… Heroin Speaks

From Prompt: How I Wish You’d See Me.

From Prompt: What I’d Like to Change

TAKE AWAYS

• Addiction is a disease.

• Maintenance is constant.

• We’re trying.

• Don’t give up on us.

• Love us unconditionally.

But it’s probably one of the most therapeutic things I’ve ever done in my life. It’s an environment where, look at all these different ethnic groups, different people, different personalities, different attitudes, but somehow or another during this process… it all came together in the end when we worked together as a group… and we’re like a family now.

Program Participant Robert Kennedy

We’re not just sitting here writing plays and having a good time and having fun, even though we do that too. We have a great time.

(The newspapers) always show you the worst of the worst… They don’t show you, hey, this guy who was molested and raped and beat(en) his whole life and had a substance abuse problem, went and stole some steaks to sell to the drug connection for drugs, so he could get out of his problems. They don’t show you stuff like that.

I want them to see that we’re not all monsters, that we are people.

www.playwrightsproject.org