At-risk teenagers rock their hearts out along the road to healing

10/24/05

By ROB KUZNIA, Staff Writer, The Santa Barbara News-Press

His mom died of cancer when he was in middle school. His dad was a paranoid schizophrenic who shouted into mirrors. To cope, the Santa Barbara High School student turned to cocaine, courtesy of his inheritance check.

But when he grabbed the mic and the live band broke into Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” it all faded away.

Now clean, the high school senior says he was rescued by a local nonprofit organization called The Academy of Healing Arts for Teens. Among other things, the Academy readies never-before singers for an exhilarating, if dreadful, experience: performing as a lead singer with a live band in front of an audience.

On Sunday, about a dozen mostly “at-risk” teens will perform at the SOhO nightclub for the second annual show, a fundraiser. At the event, dubbed the “Performance Breakthrough,” the kids perform with the local rock ‘n’ roll ensemble, the Breakthrough Band.

As a condition of interviewing the teens, the News-Press agreed to allow them to withhold their names.

The Academy was started six years ago by two marriage family therapists who realize that kids — and all people, really — are generally happier when given a creative outlet.

Since the program’s inception, the number of teens served annually has risen from about 30 to 125. By having kids act out in skits, write poems, meditate in groups — or sing a song with a live band — the Academy aims to bolster the character, imagination and emotional intelligence of wayward teens. The program is funded by a federal grant that dries up in June.

If there’s one thing the Academy understands that most people don’t, it’s this: Being too cool for school probably really means you need to loosen up. Many of the students are frequently truant from school but painfully shy about opening up in front of others.

As a result, it’s a minor miracle they show up — voluntarily — to engage in exercises that even most adults would find uncomfortable.

On the first day, to prepare for the nakedness of the stage, each student takes a turn standing silently before the group for 20 seconds before the group breaks into an applause. To warm up their voices and stir up their juices, kids are asked to move in a unique way while making a unique sound.

It’s an exercise that one Santa Barbara High School student at first found just “too weird.”

She thought, “You just can’t do that with new people, jump like a frog, scream.”

On the first day, she grudgingly made like she was roller-blading, but held off on making a silly sound. Despite her reticence, something compelled her to come back to the second session.

Now, she’s perfecting a piece by Gloria Trevi called Pelo Suelto — Spanish for letting your hair down — in which she brazenly struts her stuff on stage and whips her long, brown hair around like a heavy metal hero.
The students served range from deeply troubled teens referred to the group by counselors to those who have heard about the merits of the program through friends.

Somewhat typical, a 16-year-old named Oscar said he doesn’t consider himself troubled, but growing up wasn’t exactly easy. Son of a drug-dealing dad who was eventually carted off to prison, the Santa Barbara High School junior frequently cut classes last year. But his attendance record this year has improved.

Although disappointed that his dad became scarce, Oscar doesn’t hold a grudge against him. In fact, the ballad he chose — “Always and Forever” by The Heatwaves — is a tribute, of sorts.

“My dad would always sing that song to my mom,” he said.

Another participant, a 20-year-old City College student, grew up in a similar home in Goleta where his father operated a methamphetamine lab.

“I’ve pretty much seen all the drugs under the sun,” he said. For a while, he said, the only constant in his life was drugs. He began using crack and methamphetamine. “I smoked heroin a couple times,” he said.

Doping, he said, wasn’t just about the high — it was also a cry for help.

“Kids want people to tell them not to do drugs,” he said. “They want positive enforcement.”

At Thursday’s rehearsal, where students sang for the first time accompanied by an acoustic guitar, there was no shortage of positive feedback.

As one shaggy-haired student belted out a respectable rendition of The Doors’ “Break on Through,” Rendy Freedman, the program’s co-director, exclaimed: “When he first started singing it was like a whisper!”

When finished, Ms. Freedman and Jennifer Freed — the other co-director — asked the group to share what they liked about the performance.

“He’s using his diaphragm,” one said.

“He came from like the little shy boy to the wildcat,” a girl added.

The band, led by Mick Pulver, has long made money providing stage-fright-plagued adults the opportunity to perform. The band connected with the therapists because, not so long ago, they were customers. It hit them that the Breakthrough Band would be perfect for the teens in their group.

In a sense, the students on Sunday will be raising money for an organization that could change their lives.

Such was the case for the student who coped with his dad’s mental illness by using cocaine. He desperately wanted to kick the habit, but didn’t think he could do it in Santa Barbara.

The Academy of Healing Arts for Teens mustered $6,000 for a trip to a rehab facility in Canada, where he spent two months learning to hike, stay organized and improve his social skills.

Now, in addition to being clean, the Santa Barbara High School senior is involved with theater, enrolled in accounting classes and taking vocal lessons. “I’m more emotionally aware,” he said. “I’m more sympathetic to other people’s situations. Probably because my own was pretty bad.”

F.Y.I.

The Performance Breakthrough show will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, at SOhO. Admission is free, but the group is requesting a $10-$25 donation at the door to benefit The Academy of Healing Arts for Teens.

STEVE MALONE/NEWS-PRESS

Through skits, poetry, group meditation – or songs with a live band, The Academy of Healing Arts for Teens helps at-risk students explore their creative talents.