When I offered to send a local gang member or two to see SRJC's stunning production of "West Side Story" I didn't imagine the musical triggering a life-changing epiphany in a norte? or sure?.
I just thought it would be good to treat a gang member to a play, especially that one. Readers Scott Meredith and Theresa Kelly agreed, so we pooled a few bucks and bought several tickets to last Saturday night's performance.
Steve Velasquez of Santa Rosa's Abraxis Charter School accepted them, then offered them to students who belong to or hang with gangs.
"It was hard. It was like pulling teeth to get them to go," Steve said. But the six kids who went - four boys, two girls, ages 13 to 19 - got right into it.
"It was a good play," said Angel, a sure? who's 17 and asked that his last name not be used. "Some of the things I related to, like falling in love with a rival gang member's sister."
He said it's also true that gang members, like the play's Tony, get pressured when they try to pull back from the gang. He said that when he has backed off, "something happens and they try to bring me back into it.
"The next thing you know, we're arrested for something and it's started all over again. When you're in, you're in."
Aliczandr McClymonds, who's 15 and associates with norte?s, said he liked the play but laughed at the dancing. "It was like ballet, and the guys were doing it."
Aliczandr said he doesn't want to get involved in gangs because people close to him have been shot and badly messed up. He was glad he went Saturday night.
Steve Velasquez said one of the girls said as they left the theater: "That was so cultural!"
"It was a really good investment," Steve said. "These kids would never have gone unless we took them."
NEVER TOO OLD: When ABC's "Nightline" looked at dating and sex among seniors the other night, much camera time went to Sebastopol expert Joan Price.
Joan, 63, wrote a book, "Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty," after falling in love with a man several years older and discovering the passion's still alive.
It's a hot topic among people of AARP age. As soon as the segment by correspondent Vicki Mabrey aired, hits to Joan's blog - www.betterthanieverexpected.
blogspot.com - tripled.
'THE MESSIAH' RETURNS: Santa Rosa's "Sing-along Messiah," one of the longest-running in America, was orphaned when the sponsoring Hospital Chaplaincy Services closed this year.
When word reached the Santa Rosa Symphony League that the Sing-along Messiah was adrift, wheels started turning.
The result is that the 26th Annual Sing-along Messiah will take place Dec. 20, without a beat missed.
As always, Dan Earl will conduct the 100-voice Santa Rosa Symphonic Chorus. As always, it'll happen at Santa Rosa High.
MINUS MONTANA: Cardinal Newman's 39-0 football victory over Montgomery was all the more impressive when you consider Newman has no Montanas this year.
Joe Montana served as a junior varsity coach last year, when his eldest boy, Nathaniel, played on Newman's JV team. The Montanas are no longer seen much in Santa Rosa, now that Joe and Jennifer have moved their family from Knights Valley to the East Bay and enrolled Nathaniel and Nicholas at athletic powerhouse De La Salle High in Concord.
But it was fun having them around awhile for a couple of years, wasn't it?
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: