Free Street Theater has its offices and rehearsal space on the third floor of the community building in Pulaski Park, just west of the Kennedy between Division and North avenues. The timbered brick building feels like a cross between a country club and the state penitentiary. A big veranda stretches around the south courtyard, but it’s fenced in. There are some shade trees and a wide lawn perfect for baseball or soccer, but it’s muddy and strewn with glass.
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“The Puerto Ricans don’t like the black people,” says Momo Owens, a TeenStreet member who lives near the park. “So every now and then they stand down the fire lane [a lane on Milwaukee Avenue reserved for fire trucks]. They will stand across the street and shoot at us.”
Twice a week the members of TeenStreet do cross those lines, coming from neighborhoods all over Chicago. They take the risk because TeenStreet provides something that high school drama programs don’t.
Though the overall message of Standing Out in a Drive-by World is positive, it’s presented candidly, without apologies or sugar coatings.
