The Contemporary Youth Arts Company was founded in 1995 by Dan & Penny Kehde, Mark Scarpelli and a group of artistic young people to provide hands-on access to the performing arts in a drug free environment to teenagers in the greater Charleston area. Since it’s inception, CYAC has produced over 250 main stage performances as well as toured the social action plays “Gone Tomorrow”, “The Girls Room”, and “Love Is Not An Angry Thing” to over 30,000 students across the state. This season, CYAC will perform seven productions including premieres of two new plays, a new opera and the annual production of the rock opera “Mary.” Main stage productions are produced at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater in Charleston. CYAC is open to all young people aged 13-20. Open auditions are held for every main stage production while actors for the social action plays are chosen from members of the approximately sixty regular participants in the programs.

Dan Kehde’s Social Justice Plays

Six plays, dealing with important social justice issues, such as HIV/AIDS, date rape, dating violence, hate crimes, death and dying and teen suicide prevention are performed by members of the Contemporary Youth Arts Company, under the direction of Dan Kehde. The cost of offering the productions is $500.00 per production, plus traveling expenses. The fiscal agent for the plays is Adolescent Health Initiative, United Way of Central WV. Four of the six plays are traveling plays and can be offered in schools or community events. The play A Service for Jeremy Wong and the musical 101 Ways…( Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Suicide But Were Afraid To Ask), do not travel due to the large casts of actors. Additional charges for those plays may be charged to cover theater rental.

Keeping Bobby Close: The entire high school grieved when Bobby Close was killed in the accident, but to three of his closest companions, Mike, his best friend,  Sandy, his girlfriend, and his younger sister Julie, the loss was too profound to handle. “Keeping Bobby Close” follows their healing process as they come to terms with their loss, and begin to learn to live with the memory of their friend.   
  
“Keeping Bobby Close” is a one hour presentation written to dramatize the grieving process as a means for opening discussion on personal grief and providing individual role models for students most affected by personal loss.

Gone Tomorrow: It is a story about teens and HIV/AIDS. It tells how one seemingly innocent sexual encounter can result in over 50 high school students being exposed to the virus over a three year period. It shows that unprotected sex, even only once, can put anyone at risk, and that anyone...class president, football players, cheerleaders, college-bound students, can be affected by this virus.

The Girl’s Room: takes place in a girl’s restroom of a high school. Four friends discuss how they have been affected by date rape. It is graphic, highly dramatic, and designed to help audience members accept date rape as a reality and ask questions about how to deal with it, how to stop it, and how to help it’s victims.

Love Is Not An Angry Thing: has two characters: Tina, a 15 year old ninth grader in a newly consolidated high school. Through her best friend Margie’s continuing commentaries, the audience follows Tina and her relationship, with Greg, from the innocence of their first meeting to the guilt and anger of physical and emotional abuse and their tragic consequences. Hard-hitting and insightful, the play targets many of the characteristics of the typical abusive relationship using realistic characters and situations.

A Service For Jeremy Wong: One evening, a fifteen-year-old gay high school sophomore, Jeremy Wong, was abducted, brutally beaten, and killed by two fellow high school students. The following morning, the news of the killing and the arrests of the perpetrators was met with a mixture of feelings and complacency from Jeremy’s classmates. The play closely follows students through the next four days - - from the confessions of the murderers, to the visitation, media interviews, and the final service -- as they start to question the forces that led to Jeremy’s murder.

101 Ways…( Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Suicide But Were Afraid To Ask) Music by Mark Scarpelli, Lyrics by Dan Kehde Did you know:

• That suicide is the third leading cause of death in today's young people?
• That more than 90% of kids who commit suicide are diagnosed as mentally ill?
• That the four most prevalent mental illnesses that lead to suicide are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, alcohol and drug addiction, and clinical depression?
• Can you name the symptoms of any of these diseases?
• Do you know at which state those who suffer from bipolar disorder are most likely to commit suicide?
• Or what role seratonin plays in the suicidal brain?

Join us for a fast-paced, informative and entertaining ninety minutes of song, dance, and straight talk about what is killing our teenagers, and why.

Paid for by the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and under the auspices of the Adolescent Health Initiative of the United Way of Central West Virginia. 101 Ways... offers a unique opportunity for students to learn about mental illnesses and their contribution to the epidemic of suicide ravaging our teens nationally.

Honest and irreverent, 101 Ways... attacks the common myths about teen suicide, and exposes the real causes: Clinical Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Drug and Alcohol addiction and Schizophrenia. Exploring the role of neurotransmitters and the effects of new drug therapies, 101 Ways... provides kids with real reasons and strategies for dealing with teen suicide.

For more information contact Margo Friend, Adolescent Health Initiative Director United Way of Central WV 304-340-3622 or mexlinef@yahoo.com.

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