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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 25, 2007

Respect for youths, it’s a choice they can make

By Marie Carvalho
Special to The Advertiser

Actors Reb Beau Allen, left, and Alvin Chan star in the play "Choice," which challenges young males to explore the serious repercussions of sexually violent behavior and encourages respectful relationships with partners.

Photos by DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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GET ‘RESPECT’

Teachers or schools interested in learning more about the “Respect is a Choice” educational program should contact Honolulu Theatre for Youth at 839-9885.

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From left, Eric Johnson, Reb Beau Allen, Alvin Chan and BullDog check lines before a performance of the play, sponsored by Honolulu Theatre for Youth and the Sex Abuse Treatment Center.

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SEXUAL VIOLENCE STATISTICS

  • According to the Department of Justice statistics, about 70 percent of rapes and sexual victmizations are not reported to police. As many as 1 in 7 Hawai'i women may be victims of rape in their lifetimes, according to a 2003 national study by researchers Dean G. Kilpatrick and Kenneth J. Ruggiero.

  • More than 95 percent of sexual-assault offenders are male.

  • Seven of 10 rape and sexual-assault victims know the offender before the

    assault.

  • In 2006, the Sex Abuse Treatment Center assisted 644 new sexual-assault victims, or about 1.8 per day; 88 of those victims were male and 553 were female.

  • One in 33 American men report experiencing a forcible rape or rape attempt.

  • Teens 16 to 19 years old are 3 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.

  • Sexual assault touches all ages: In 2006, the Sex Abuse Treatment Center’s youngest client was 18 months old while the oldest was 96 years old.

    Source: Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children

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    You know the pose, the one that instantly says "moke," circa teenage years: slouched in a chair, head cocked, legs flopping out, knees loose, hands fumbling under a T-shirt. So when actor Alvin Chan strikes that posture to begin the play, "Choice," it's a spot-on, funny, low-key introduction to an intense subject.

    Chan and fellow actor Reb Beau Allen star in the two-actor play, a collaborative endeavor between Honolulu Theatre for Youth and the Sex Abuse Treatment Center. One sticky Monday evening in mid-March, they're in character for community leaders, who've gathered at HTY's downtown digs to learn what "Choice" means.

    HTY artistic director Eric Johnson offers a mantralike clue: "radical programming, carefully executed."

    For starters, "Choice" is a different breed of drama. According to center manager of community education Christine Trecker, the project grew from a challenge: how to reach a tough crowd (teenage boys) about the sensitive topic of sexual-violence prevention.

    The one-act dialogue fearlessly takes its intimate message where no such play has dared to go before: to small, exclusively male teenage audiences. The project just wrapped up its pilot year, having successfully staged performances at diverse youth-oriented venues in Hawai'i, from Saint Louis School to Palama Settlement to Lahainaluna High School on Maui.

    And it dares to make the play appealing. "Choice" speaks to its audience without pandering; it never evades hard truths, yet sketches its familiar, school-age characters through humor, slang and pidgin (sex is initially referred to as "da kine"). Rumor has it that playwright Yokanaan Kearns' young son helped his dad to vet out any "cheesy" missteps, boosting the dialog's street cred. Both deserve accolades.

    But the radically different theatrical approach doesn't stop there. After delivering compelling performances, the play's two twentysomething actors become simply "other men," joining the play's director, veteran HTY actor BullDog, for an extended post-performance rehash with their teenage audience — what Trecker describes as "a candid exchange about how tough it is to be a guy."

    The center's Christy Werner trained the three actors for their star turn as educators; judging from their recent show, the three are quick studies. Sample discussion prompts are open-ended, thoughtful and practice what they preach: respect.

    "Consensus," BullDog proposes, "comes through discussion."

    Such discussion, for example, "erodes the normalizing of the jock stereotype" — or so says Allen, who doesn't share his jock character's repugnant views. Post-performance, the charismatic young actor sheds his role and offers his personal experience instead, modeling new ways that boys can relate when talking "da kine."

    Chan, his versatile co-actor/educator, agrees: "It really equips you with what to do when you encounter these situations. It's not just about the act (of rape), but about understanding subtler things — like manipulation."

    BullDog concurs. "We always take it back to effective communication with your partner."

    "Choice" is a work in progress. Ultimately, the center and HTY hope to develop a companion play targeting teenage girls and take the program statewide. Their immediate goal is more tangible: reaching twice as many schools as they did in the program's pilot year. But finding seed money is an ever-present challenge.

    Center executive director Adriana Ramelli remains undeterred: "Clearly, if we want to do prevention, we need to be developing effective programs that involve men."

    So far, theater seems a good bet. One high school, Le Jardin Academy, in Kailua, screened "Choice" for upperclassmen; the other grades initiated a drive to bring the show back — for them. When female classmates admired the hip black "respect" T-shirts participants received, the boys wore them en masse on Valentine's Day.

    Johnson muses, "What theater can do is put someone in the shoes of someone else. It's about empathy.

    "It's something," he concludes, "we can't afford not to do."

    Marie Carvalho is a freelance writer who covers the arts.








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    Seeking help in Hawai'i

    The Sex Abuse Treatment Center of Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children provides a number of services to sexual-assault victims, including:

    • A 24-hour crisis hot line: 524-7273
     • Specialized medical examination available 24 hours a day; must be done within 72 hours of the assault.
     • Legal evidence collection; must be done within 72 hours of the assault.
     • Pediatric medical evaluation for nonemergency situations
     • Legal advocacy for sexual-assault victims
     • Counseling services for sexual
    assault victims and their families
     • Educational presentations to schools, community organizations, businesses and other groups
    For more information, call the center at 535-7600.

    Impact of sexual violence
     • Rape survivors are three times more likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder episodes than individuals who have not been raped and
    13 times more likely to have attempted suicide.
     • Sexual victimization is associated with severe, enduring affective and behavioral consequences for survivors, such as increased drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, depression, suicide and teenage pregnancy.
    Source: Sex Abuse Treatment Center

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