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The play’s the thing
Foster teens bring some of life’s ugly realities to stage
By Rhonda Y. Maree
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
Although it’s unfortunate cir
cumstances such as abuse, ne
glect or abandonment that land
children in foster care, some is
sues that teens grapple with are
common to those in and out of
the foster care system.
Performing a series of skits
written by Augusta Mini The
atre Director Tyrene Butler, area
foster teens are bringing some of
life’s ugly realities to stage, and
that’s where they plan to keep
them.
As participants in the Depart
ment of Family and Children
Services’ Independent Living
Program, which was created in
1988 to teach foster teens basic
living skills, these teens will per
form the highly symbolic and
inspirational play in Orlando,
Fla., this week at a national con
ference.
Titled Wings of Dreams, the
play demonstrates through dra
matic dialogues ways of control
ling one’s destiny by having
dreams and taking positive ac
tion.
Issues the play addresses in
clude high school dropout, vio
lence, suicide, anger, physical
abuse, teen pregnancy and drug
abuse.
“This play actually teaches
them that they can dream re
gardless of their situation,” said
Catherine B. Robinson, Indepen
dent Living Coordinator.
“We try to instill in them that
they’re not responsible for where
they came from, butthey do have
a lot of input into where they’re
going. The program has done a
lot to enhance everybody’s self
esteem. I'veseen alot of growth,”
Convenience store owners say ‘Don’t be mad
at us’ when it comes to Lottery traffic, hassle
By Jim Tudor
President, Georgia Association of
Convenience Stores
Convenience stores have be
come an integral part of the
American lifestyle. Stopping for
gas, food and other essentials on
a moment’s notice — in most
cases 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week — is available to us on
virtually every street corner.
However, since the inception of
the Georgia Lottery, convenience
stores have received an influx of
complaints from customers about
stores no longer being “conve
nient.”
What’s changed in the two
years since the lottery’s start
up? The volume of lottery cus
tomers at convenience stores.
Record lottery sales in Georgia
mean longer customer lines and
fewer parking spaces in our
stores for all customers. That’s
made a lot of people angry. In
fact, selling lottery tickets has
driven away some of our custom
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Teens practice their skit before embarking on a trip to Orlando
to perform. Photos: Derick Wells
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ers. One of Georgia’s largest
convenience store chains has
decided to pull out of the lottery
all together to restore “conve
nience” to the majority of its cus
tomers. It’s no surprise that cus
tomers called, wrote and stopped
by to thank them for taking the
lottery OUT and putting conve
nience IN.
We signed on with the Georgia
Lottery Corporation to sell lot
tery tickets as an additional ser
vice to our valued customers.
Unfortunately, selling tickets has
become a much larger task than
we had ever imagined. We, the
convenience stores, sell more
than 76 percent of all lottery tick
ets compared to an average of 49
percent in other lottery states.
The time clerks spend handling
and distributing lottery tickets
limits the time they can spend
with bread-and-milk customers.
Overall, selling lottery tickets
has put some stores in the red.
Increasedlabor costs, theft, shop
lifting and operating expenses
Closer Look
associated with selling lottery
tickets have prevented us from
hiring additional personnel.
We are committed to solving
this problem and returning the
“convenience” to our stores.
We've approached the Georgia
Legislature and they've created
the House Lottery Retailers
Study Committee to study the
profitability of selling lottery tick
ets. Hopefully this committee
will help persuade the Georgia
Lottery Corporation (GLC) that
retailers are carrying much of
the financial burden for ticket
sales and must be compensated
for operating losses.
In the meantime, we're pro
posing solutions to the GLC
which will hopefully result in
more parking spaces, shorter
lines and prompt service. Our
goal is to put the “convenience”
back into our stores.
Jim Tudor is President of the
Georgia Association of Conve
nience Stores in Atlanta
she said. |
The teens also see the benefits
of being in the program and do
ing the play. |
“It’'s a way of letting other peo
ple know that these things do go
on and we do need help with
these situations,” said one foster
teen who has experienced some
of the problems in the play.
Another participant who por
trays an angry teen eager to use
a gun, also said Independent Liv
ing is helpful.
. “The program has helped me
takethenegative thingsand turn
them into a positive,” he said.
Independent Living also uses
peer counselors who have never
beenin foster care to set positive
examples and offer friendship.
Oné peer counselor said the
program has helped him as well.
“You get to see some of the
things that foster children go
through and see that they’re just
regular people,” he said.
At 18, foster teens must decide
if they want to stay in the custo
dy of DFCS or venture on their
own, which is what Independent
Living tries to prepare them to
do.
But Ms. Robinson said staying
in is often best.
“A lot of times it’s to their ad
vantageto stay in because a lot of
them don’t have birth families
that they can return to for vari
ous reasons, and a lot of times
they have bonded with their fos
ter parents who can provide them
with a place to stay while they
finish their education,” she said.
With funds available for foster
teens, many go to college and
have successful careers, which is
what one 18-year-old Burke
County High School foster teen
who wants to be an engineer
plans to do.
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AUGUSTA FOCUS September 28, 1995
The Wiz production
From page one
show The Ossie Davis-Ruby Dee
Story Hour.
His work in radio and televi
sion, and on stage, has been rec
ognized nationally with a CEBA
(NYC), an Emmy (Seattle), two
AUDELCO Awards (NYC) and
the Joseph Jefferson Citation
(Chicago). He earned his degree
in professional theatre at North
Carolina A&T State University.
Augusta native Lynwood
Holmes is musical director. He
began his musical journey at the
age of seven. He attended Immac
ulate Conception School,and grad
uated from Aquinas high School
in 1988. He received a bachelor’s
degree in middle grades educa
tion, with an emphasis in music,
from Georgia Southern Universi
ty.
While at Georgia Southern,
Lynwood served as the music di
rector of the school’s African-
American Gospel Choir and was a
tenor in the concert choir. He has
worked with the university’s the
atre organization Theater South
on two of their plays. He was the
assistant music director for the
highly acclaimed Gospel at
Colonus in April 1993 and was
the music director for a Tony
Award-winning production of The
Theatre
From page one
training area, storage space, and
drama and music studios. The
building was paid off in July.
The Augusta Mini Theatre is
unique in that no other organiza
tion has effectively provided, un
der one roof, classes of various
arts disciplines to the African-
American community, as well as
to economically disadvantaged
areasand the community atlarge.
In recent years, a very strong
program has been developed to
Wiz in Oct. 1994, also under the
direction of Mical Whitaker.
In Augusta, Lynwood has
served as musician for many
choirs and groups in the area. He
is currently musician for the Good
Hope and Macedonia Baptist
churches.
He also serves as music director
for the 10th District Choir of the
General Missionary Baptist Con
vention of Ga., which debuted in
November 1994 at the state con
vention hosted by Augusta.
The Cast
The main cast members are
Sherica Hall as “Dorothy,” Shay
Rountree as “Scarecrow,” David
Simmons as “Lion,” and Maurice
Williams as “Tinman.”
Performances are scheduled as
follows:
Oct. 5, 10:30 a.m. For area
schools. $4.
Oct. 6, 6:30 p.m. dinner, 8:30
p.m. show. Dinner and play ssl,
play only sl3. Cast party at BL’s
Restaurant after the show.
Oct. 7, 8 p.m. sl3.
Oct. 8, 3 p.m. sl3.
Tickets available at the Civic
Center Box Office, Ticketmaster
locations and the Augusta Mini
Theatre, for all shows except the
Thursday school performance. For
more information, please call 722-
0598.
serve primarily low-income areas
and the disabled. Over 125,000
people in Georgia, Alabama and
South Carolina have benefited
from their services through stage
performances, workshops, lec
tures and classroom instruction.
Because of their work in the
community and surrounding ar
eas, they were cited in 1984 by the
Governor of Georgia, and received
the Governor’s Award in the Arts.
Mr. Butler received the 1989 Best
Actor’s Award from the Georgia
Theatre Conference.
9