SEE Magazine
Issue #393: June 14, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved

On Stage PREVIEW by Mari Sasano Chris Craddock Reads! Thursday, June 14 at Savoy For Chris Craddock, things have come full circle: once spurred to write a play for teenagers by an ad in this publication, he returns with the resulting play in a new anthology. Naked at School – to be launched by NeWest Press Thursday, June 14 at Savoy – is a collection of three plays that Craddock has written for and about teenagers. The Day Billy Lived, Wrecked, and Do it Right deal with the Holy Trinity of adolescent troubles: suicide, alcohol, and sexuality. Craddock has written 12 plays since 1992 and has paid dearly – in praise. He is a nominee and winner of numerous Sterlings (including one for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre for Young Audiences for The Day Billy Lived) and winner of the 2000 Enbridge Award for Emerging Artist. In his introduction, Craddock confesses to his own adolescent despair at age 14 involving 22 Tylenols, so he knows whereof he speaks. None of these plays patronize the audience: Craddock’s messages are delivered with directness beyond the "teenage suicide, don’t do it" approach that merely provokes a round of eye-rolling. Teenagers often aren’t given credit for what they know. Craddock speaks from experience, and he’s not too removed from that age to have forgotten the confusion that informs such experience. For example, The Day Billy Lived presents the afterlife of Billy, a 16-year-old who is overwhelmed by his own life and the powerlessness he feels in the face of worldwide environmental destruction, benignly indifferent parents and, of course, girls. Billy is guided Capra-style through his life, and is allowed to finally make a choice based on what he has seen. The two other plays follow a similar approach. Wrecked, arguably the best of the three, follows Lyle, son of Sharon, a single mother and alcoholic. While not ignoring the allure of alcohol, the play mirrors some of the stupider attitudes towards drinking that we all have to endure. It’s balanced between slice-of-life scenes of teens drinking and of Lyle’s home life. Do it Right takes a pro-education stance towards sex education, suggesting that what kids need these days is the power to make their own decisions. Kids often learn more about sex from each other than they ever could from school or parents. The play reflects that, intercutting scenes of one girl’s pregnancy with the research of two 10-year-olds. More than that, it shows how ignorance and prejudice are more harmful than knowing how to ask the right questions without shame. But in an age where the average teenager is now an accomplished 90210logist, what is the purpose of presenting live theatre to a teenage audience? Well, it allows teens to get involved in efforts at self-expression by producing plays. Craddock offers these scripts for free to teenagers who want to put on a show of their own. It’s an alternative to the incessant remounting of The Outsider. But Craddock offers the most valuable advice in the introduction: that kids should be writing their own stories, speaking for themselves and learning from their own experiences. Although educational plays are useful and make useful outreach to new audiences (granting organizations are falling over themselves with "youth initiatives" right now), media-savvy teens have picked up on a lot of the "education" part already.

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