Matrix Theatre Company Celebrates 20 Years

Friday, November 11, 2011

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Before the curtain goes up on most stage performances… actors commonly have rituals to help get them ready. Some rehearse lines out loud, others jump up and down…and some pray. But the current cast of Southwest Story… sings.

What we’re going to do is one game, one vocal then the song…Oh yeah…ride the pony or or something…oh…the donkey…I like the donkey! (Clapping and singing singing) The warm-up exercise helps the actors bond, come out of their shells and put on their best performance.

Once the bonding exercise is complete… there is a last minute rehearsal for a fight scene in the play.

Leading young actors through the process is Julanne Jacobs. She says the fight scene is a turning point in the play… so it needed to feel real.

We had David Blix who is one of the top fight choreographers in Michigan…he was wonderful enough to come in and donate his time and he taught the kids in one rehearsal how to throw fake punches take fake punches…kicks…everything you need to know and choreograph the entire scene.

Southwest Story is an adaption of Romeo and Juliette. The teens in the Matrix Theater wrote the script. In this version they added nuances relevant today such as cell phones, ring-tones and talk of face book. But what makes the play unique is that it’s set in Detroit and looks at issues of race, immigration, religion and gun violence.

The Matrix Theater Company is celebrating its 20TH anniversary. The theater has been nationally recognized for its work with at risk youth. Part of the process at Matrix is allowing kids to write, act and direct plays around issues they face every day. Justino solis is one of those teens.

In this play I have the role of Tomas, Christina’s Cousin. In the Romeo and Juliette story that would be Tybalt.

Solis is tall, slender and has a well defined face. He says working on this play has given him a different understanding about racial discrimination and bigotry.

Plays like these makes you think about racism outside the places like the theater. It makes you think about racism everywhere and how people react to and how people take actions toward it.

Monique Colman plays a character called Sister Cook in Southewest Story. Colman says she got involved with the play house because of its after school program…. but fell in love with Matrix Theater because of their mission.

They had the young directors program…they’d show you how to write and kind of direct a play that had a message. So… we spent maybe a semester working on this play about dating violence. This play is about a young boy and a young girl…the girl is Mexican the boy is African American and their parent don’t see eye to eye because the young girls parents own a liquor store that is right across the street from the African American church.

Hundreds of children and teens have been part of the community play house over the past two decades. For its next act the Matrix Theater Company plans on building an outdoor theater and working with children with disabilities.

I’m Martina Guzman WDET News.

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