Chicago Avenue Project puts kids' imaginations on stage

On a recent afternoon in south Minneapolis, the award-winning actor and director Craig Johnson worked on his latest project, "The Cursed Potion."

Johnson has worked with many of the biggest names on the Minnesota stage. But this afternoon, it was a 9-year-old ingénue who was getting the benefit of his expertise.

Johnson is one of the many professional artists volunteering in this year's Chicago Avenue Project at Pillsbury House Theatre. Each year, children in the Powderhorn neighborhood are guided through the process of writing plays and acting. Then they get to see their stories produced by professionals, and some have a chance to act on stage along with them.

Over the years, participants say, the Chicago Avenue Project has become an important anchor in the neighborhood. And the artists find the work rewarding as well.

"There are no rules," said Johnson. "It's very free ... all kinds of absurd, creative things can happen, and that's really freeing, just as an adult artist, to be reminded of that. We call them 'plays,' so it's playing. We get together and we play, and that's a wonderful thing."

Project Director Emily Zimmer said the point of the project is to give kids an experience of success.

"Really this project is a platform," she said. "The kids are wildly creative, and we know that about them. It's a way for the kids to show the rest of the world how creative they are."

In the process, Zimmer said, children learn to collaborate with other artists. It's also a way for them to process other things going in their lives.

Dana Nelson, whose two sons have participated in the Chicago Avenue Project, described it as "the best show in town."

"We've got the professional talent coming to perform the plays of the imagination of 9- and 10-year-olds," she said. "It's just the most amazing combination."

Pillsbury House Theatre is located in a community center in the racially and economically diverse Powderhorn neighborhood. Nelson's family lives just around the corner from the theater, as do many of the other families involved. She remembers watching a friend's child being cheered on stage during a performance, knowing that the family had just lost their home to foreclosure.

"For them to have this experience while they were obviously going through a really rough time in life — it was just the right thing at the right time," she said. "I think it really just helped them get through that time in a way that was extraordinary and unique."

Nelson said she values not just the skills her sons are learning through the Chicago Avenue Project, but also the knowledge that there are mentors in the neighborhood who care about their well-being.

Pillsbury House Artistic Director Noel Raymond said that when the project first started, she used to have to beg and cajole artists to volunteer their time with the children. Now the program is so popular she sometimes has to turn artists away. She said it's rewarding to see how many kids who participated in the program are now coming back and working as mentors.

"You often don't see it when they're 9, but it's amazing to have lasted this long and to see what the seeds have turned into as the children become adults," she said.

One of those adults is Patrick Laird. Years after participating as a youngster, Laird credits the Chicago Avenue Project with keeping him focused at a time when many of his peers were getting in trouble. He explained that the program offered "the ability to be able express yourself, and have the guidance, and people around you willing to help you and push you to the next level."

Laird now works as an underwriter at U.S. Bank. He plans to attend the 20th anniversary celebration of the Chicago Avenue Project, which will include a play he wrote as a kid. He's not in theater now, but he'll never forget the experience.

"Honestly, words can't describe when you have your family there, and you see them standing up and cheering you on, along with the crowd ... honestly, there are no words that can describe it," he said. "You just need to be in that moment."

The Chicago Avenue Project performs Monday and Tuesday evening at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis.