City Musical
Introduction
Estha Cilvetti
In 1988, 16-year old Estha Cilvetti returned to her home in Rochester, New York after a Soviet/American Peace Child tour and told her us that, following her trip, she felt herself closer to her friends in the Soviet Union than those in the suburbs of her own city – even some in her own school. We realised from her remarks that the conflicts and problems young people faced in many cities across the USA, and the guns, gangs, drugs and crime they saw every day required our attention. The shooting of a little girl at a Washington DC high school Washington DC high school inspired Peace Child Founder, Rosey Simonds, to mount the first production in the Nation’s Capital – drawing together students from the inner city and the outlying suburbs to meet and see if they could imagine, then create, a City at Peace!
The Story: the story we developed follows the lives of two families – one black, one white – dealing with the problem of substance abuse. As they tried to overcome their problems, they were brought together by a student forum on the drugs and violence affecting the city. The forum inspired the students to mobilize everyone in the community for their cause. Their actions brought them national recognition and the play concludes with a huge rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
How we did it
The first pilot production was performed at Dunbar High School on April 12 1989. Led by a team of professionals, the script was written and created by twenty five young performers with the guidance of the Artistic Director, Carlo Grossman. The cast ranged in age from eight to eighteen with a broad representation of “at risk” students. They were drawn from diverse backgrounds: housing shelters in the inner city to exclusive private schools in the suburbs. They were challenged to devise alternatives to the existing social conflicts and the story line included many of their own experiences.
The play was subsequently shown in Congress and in different schools and churches around the city. It continued for many years in Washington with an annual production involving new students . The producer and director published a Script, Score, Production Notes & Study guide. Available to schools and groups across the USA and around the world to use for FREE – this resulted in a host of local productions over the next few years in towns and cities as far afield as Miami, Detroit, New York City, Trenton NJ and many other places. Each presentation lasted 45 minutes to one hour and each was followed by a discussion afterwards between the cast and audience.
As with every Peace Child production, the play is set in the future when the fear of violence, drugs and hopelessness are a distant memory. The children of that future reflect back on their parents and grand-parents time and the turmoil and discord they experienced. During each performance, the cast and audience are challenged to devise alternative ways of handling the social conflicts they face. The Result is to provide both cast and audience with hope, and to encourage them to take responsibility for the city in which they live and make sure that it is a “City at Peace.”
