(marker rustling) - My name is Jeyden.

- My name is Jasmine.

- [Videographer] What's your name?

- Davian.

- My name is Lindsay.

- The Manton Avenue project is an out of school time playwriting program for young people, ages eight through 18.

And we work primarily in the community of Olneyville with one school, William Debate Elementary School.

We teach playwriting and theater arts here at our clubhouse.

- The students work on their writing skills.

They work on putting a play together.

They work with actors and actresses to perform their play and then they actually, their play is performed in front of a live audience.

- [Videographer] What's your name?

- Napaulette.

- My name is Brianna.

- My name is Sumileyni.

(kids gigglign) - [Meg] The Manton Avenue project was started in 2004.

- I went and saw the first show and I was sitting in the audience, my friend and I, and we just started bawling.

- I thought it was the coolest, colorfullest thing I'd ever seen.

- It was an incredible experience.

- I had never seen young people give direction to adults.

I had never seen young people take center stage.

- And I was just like, I really, really need to be a part of this.

That's awesome.

- [Videographer] Why do you think you were chosen to be a playwright?

- Because my sister is in the playwriting.

Because I'm very creative.

- I like to write horror.

- I don't really know.

- Choosing students can be challenging.

I really look at the whole child.

Who could benefit from an experience like this.

The toughest part is not having everyone part of it.

- She thought that I had a great imagination and she saw a few of my drawings.

- My teacher wants me to have fun here here and learn more.

- I like writing stories because it's fun.

- Because I have a great imagination and I'm creative.

- You can see this moment where they think these are tools, I can build something out of this.

Oh, the pen is mine.

The power is mine, yeah.

And I can make these adults do whatever I want.

(Jane laughs) (light music) (kids shrieking) (upbeat music) - [Teacher] A sweet and a salty, people.

- [Teacher] Process starts with a six to eight week class here at the clubhouse.

- So we start week one, we'll play some theater games, mostly just to get them out of their shell, get back into the swing of things.

And then the first thing that we always do is we write character outlines.

- I have an idea for something crazy.

- They can have any character be anything that they want it to be.

It could be the camera, it could be this light, it could be this stool.

It's their play.

It's their thing.

There's no right or wrong answer.

Because you have to walk around.

So what I want you to do is think of what story you want to tell that you are gonna write about on Saturday.

But I want you to think about it and maybe write down some ideas.

- Usually for a play, I thought it was like a story, but when Miss Nicole said that a play is like people reading your sentence that has dialogue and all that stuff and they add like a whole lot of body movement.

- I'm already closer to my parents.

I'll be with them tomorrow.

- The book that we're focusing on this year is "Salito" by Javier Zamora.

It's a story of a young boy from El Salvador who comes to the United States and he is by himself, but he makes friends with strangers along the way and they help him.

So it's about his sort of harrowing journey.

They're writing their plays based on our condensed version of the story.

(actor speaking foreign language) - [Actor] Everything happened so fast!

- The book is written in the voice of a child.

A child who went through an experience of severely traumatic experience at such a young age.

And a lot of the students in this neighborhood unfortunately have some relationship to a traumatic experience.

Whether that is of their own, of their families, of their friends, and to see themselves reflected in literature I think is really important.

- If everybody wants to, you can sit down on the floor, you can grab a chair, whatever you want.

We're just gonna talk a little about today and to plan.

This is an opportunity for you to think about that story and how it might connect to your own life.

We have a really cool weekend where each playwright is matched with a dramaturg.

Who is their personal playwriting mentor.

- Where do they head to, like specifically inside the building?

- They head to the back door to see if it's unlocked.

- Never giving ideas, but asking questions.

- But what time do you want 'em to leave at?

- 7:30.

- 7:30?

I can't write.

- It's kind of similar to "Salito" because their parents are separated and I have like kind of been separated from my parents.

Kind of not that long, but like a long time.

- Good job.

- Thank you, Sumi.

It's gonna be so good.

- Too.

- That's a very touching one.

We've recruited actors by this point from multiple theater companies here in our awesome city.

And rehearsals begin.

- Tonight we are doing a full run through top to bottom with our costumes and lovely foam core props.

All of our performers are each playing multiple characters each and so we wanna make sure that everyone knows who they are, when they are, and where they gotta be.

For these plays, since they're by kids and they have such wonderful imagination.

It's finding moments where there's comedy, where there's fun.

- And the lines are wonderful 'cause the kids aren't that's just whatever comes from them and they're not edited at all.

♪ America ♪ ♪ Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles ♪ ♪ Bubbles in America ♪ - I feel like we're ready.

I feel like I'm ready now that we ran the whole thing from beginning to end.

(hands clapping) (light music) - Tonight, you're going to see eight incredible plays written by eight incredible playwrights.

- You fool, I never wanna see you here again.

You are a disappointment.

- It was a little bit awkward at first, but then I kind of got into it and I liked it.

- Jeyden's were about like Sammy the strawberry.

- It's time for nighttime when I'm most active.

- It was about kids that were eating healthy foods.

So the Sammy the Strawberry forced them to eat wet fruits and vegetables.

- No!

- Then you better run!

(actors scream) - Everything leads to horror or comics when it comes to Jeyden.

Everything.

(actress screams) (audience laughs) - Lindsay and her brother came over not long ago, a couple years ago and I had no idea until she wrote the play.

(actress speaking foreign language) - We're going to the United States.

- But I don't wanna go.

- Why not, mija?

I think it's a good idea since both of you haven't seen your parents in so long.

- I'm still very scared.

- It really took me a little bit by surprise, the heaviness of some of these stories and how honest they were.

(hands clapping) Find Joshua's phone.

They find Joshua's phone!

and a photo of the kidnapper and... (everyone gasps) It was the police officer!

(everyone gasps) Scene three.

- I think it was great.

- [Videographer] So what was great?

Actors?

The writing?

- [Child] I did like it.

- [Videographer] So your writing was great.

Do you wanna write more plays?

- Yeah.

(actors speaking foreign language) - It felt kind of cool 'cause I don't usually tell my personal stories to other people that I don't know, but like in plays it's fine with me.

(actress speaking foreign language) - [Teacher] Sumi's play really reflected "Solito."

She didn't know her parents until she came over here as a toddler.

- I was amazed that she used our story to do the play.

Just tell me that all those emotions, sadness, and the sacrifices, you know, they are worth it.

Manton Ave. program gave her that extra and that confidence that she needed.

- I actually have seen her become more outgoing and I even see her being a mentor when she's in the middle school or high school.

- [Susanna] I see that she is blooming.

(everyone clapping) - The population at Olneyville is made up of, they are not told that they are leaders, they are not told that they are important.

Society has all of these really negative stereotypes on such a beautiful population of people.

And here that's both acknowledged in spaces made for processing that.

- When they see their child sitting at that desk, especially our families who have immigrated here, which most of them have, and knowing how hard they've worked to come here and to just see their smile and light up.

It's just, there's no words.

There's no words.

(light music) (audience clapping) (light music continues) (light music continues) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching,