Girls on the Wall

Gr 10 Up—Employing the autobiographical technique made famous on Broadway with A Chorus Line, the staff of Storycatchers Theatre works with troubled youth to create a musical revue based on the performers' life stories. In this production, the performers are inmates at Warrenville Youth Center, a juvenile detention center west of Chicago, and the film documents the seven months leading up to one of their productions. A series of confessional interviews provides insight into each of the young stars, their caseworkers, their estranged relatives, and other individuals in their lives, all of whom gather in the detention center's library for the culminating performance. Though the film's colorful language prevents showing it in classrooms below tenth or eleventh grade, students in theater production or sociology classes will benefit from the inspirational story. In perilous economic times, advocates for the arts in schools would be hard-pressed to find a more compelling piece of evidence for the redemptive power of music and song.—Bernie Morrissey, The Harker School, San Jose, CA