When you're a teenager, you are always the ONLY ONE. The "only one" WHAT doesn't matter—there is always something that isolates you, and you alone, from the rest of the world. Those who claim otherwise are required to present their evidence again and again, and if it's YOU professing kinship with some other person or group, repeated affirmation is likewise mandatory ( just because YOU say you're part of the club doesn't mean that the club agrees ) .
These conditions must be understood if About Face Youth Theatre: In Real Life, a show more easily described than critiqued, is to be seen as more than occupational therapy for attention-starved adolescents.
This latest production by the underage division of About Face Theatre springs from a collection of anecdotes submitted to its www.afyt.com website by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning youths and their allies throughout cyberspace. This material was then workshopped by the participants in the program to produce a musical/comedy/spoken word revue designed to acquaint audiences with the concerns of this disenfranchised subculture.
And a gloomy universe it is, populated with girls who slash themselves with razor blades and boys in love with their Miss Piggy puppets. The internet permits high-tech Pen Pals to communicate across continents, sparking passionate liaisons drenched in romantic mystery that end, as all romance does, in despair ( both the enervating and the suicidal variety ) . There are signs of hope: the recipient of a scholarship for gay activist students addresses the nation on CNN. Three same-sex couples at their high school prom win the respect of their peers. A teacher declares that there will be no Hate Speech in his classroom. An epilogue informs us that these are mostly wishful fantasies, however.
But these lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning youth and allies are not content merely to share the misery. Within their humorously hypothetical speculations lie solutions, goals and—more important—instructions for the achievement of same. One may argue that this renders AFYT:IRL more educational than entertaining, but so long as alienation is a fact of daily existence for teenagers, if a "You are NOT alone" persuades them to continue that existence a little longer, who can deny its value?