Few
people who are part of an award-winning, nationally
recognized organization can say they’ve been around
since the beginning. John Freeland Jr. is one of
those people. A volunteer since 1993, Freeland was an
important part of US before it even had a
name. “Back then, we were called Mid Valley Theatre
Company, because we were working in the Mid
Valley/Van Nuys area,” Freeland remembers.
A veteran of the stage, Freeland had been involved in
youth theatre programs in Connecticut and at UCLA
before he found out about US through Laura
Leigh Hughes. “She asked me to get involved and I
said ‘yes’, not really knowing exactly what she was
doing,” he says.
In the time he’s been with US, Freeland has
seen the organization go through exciting and
dramatic changes, from receiving the Juvenile Justice
Award in 2000, to moving the US office out of
Laura Leigh’s closet, to hiring a full-time executive
director. Freeland remembers when US began
working with high risk offenders at Central Juvenile
Hall as another important milestone in the
organization’s history.
"This
was a turning point for US,” he says. “We were
dealing with a different type of youth (than we had
in the past). They were in there for serious crimes.
This was the first time we really began to deal with
race issues. There was a lot of tension.”
Freeland says the team of artists tried to diffuse
this tension by pairing the youth with people they
wouldn’t normally choose to work with. While there
was initially some resistance to this course of
action, “[a]fter awhile, they got comfortable with
each other. They could relax. It became a safe place
for them,” Freeland says.
Fourteen years later, Freeland is still an active
part of the US family. Over the years he’s
filled a number of different shoes at US, from
teaching artist, to sounds designer, to mentor. He’s
met a lot of kids in that time, many of whom he still
remembers. But even more than the individual youth,
whose unique stories have often proved to be powerful
reminders of why he remains committed to US,
what has stuck with Freeland has been the creativity
of the plays written by the youth and the overall
effect the program has had on all that have gone
through it.
“You could kind of see their mood change over the
course of the workshop. They smiled more. It became
okay for them to laugh.”
*This year John Freeland Jr. was honored with US’
very first Volunteer of the Year award which
recognizes his longstanding commitment to transform
lives through theatre. Congratulations John!
-All 15 Years, 15 Voices articles written by
volunteer writer Kristen Scott
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