February 2, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

‘Actors’ true-crime victims
‘One always hears sobbing throughout the audience’
by LEN LEAR

Victoria Greene (center), of Germantown, a retired social worker, her daughter, Altovise, and Reuben Jones perform in Beyond the Walls: The Road to Redemption, a play in which the actors are real-life crime victims and real-life criminals.

Since the days of ancient Greece, playwrights have been trying to stir the emotions of audiences by having them identify with the words and feelings delivered by actors, but there may have never been a stage play quite as powerful as Beyond the Walls; the Road to Redemption, which premiered last May at the Philadelphia Cathedral, 3723 Chestnut St.

That’s because the 10 “actors” in the 90-minute play are real people who have actually experienced exactly what they are portraying on stage. In other words, when Victoria Greene, 57, of Germantown, a retired social worker and the mother of Altovise Love-Craighead, talks on stage about her son, Emir, being murdered, she is talking about her real-life son, Emir, who was murdered at age 20 in 1997. His convicted killer was given a sentence of life behind bars. (In 1999 Ms. Greene even started an organization called EMIR — Every Murder Is Real — in order to provide crisis intervention, support and prevention services for families who have lost loved ones to murder.)

And the woman who plays the mother of Emir’s killer on stage is the actual mother of the man who murdered Emir in real life. (Interestingly, this woman objected strongly to the final word in this line of dialogue spoken by Ms. Greene: “I know you didn’t raise your son to be a murderer.” To accommodate her, Ms. Greene changed it to: “I know you didn’t raise your son to be a criminal.”)

Beyond the Walls: The Road to Redemption, written almost entirely by the families of both victims and perpetrators of the violent crimes being portrayed, was performed more than 20 times in the year 2005. The last performances were Dec. 2 and 3 at The Philadelphia Cathedral.

Some upcoming performances will be on Friday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m., at Martin Luther King High School; Saturday, Feb. 25, 6 p.m., at Graterford Prison, and Friday, March 24, 7 p.m., at the Mt. Airy Church of God, 603 E. Sedgwick St. (The performances in Mt. Airy are sponsored by State Rep. Dwight Evans, who was so moved by a performance he saw last year that he obtained financial support for the troupe, according to TOVA spokesman Tom Yarnal.)

The plays were conceived by a 15-year-old organization called TOVA: Artistic Projects for Social Change. (“Tova” is a Hebrew word meaning “good” or “friend.”) They are open to the public, but invariably the audience will include people who have lost loved ones to violence. The impact of the plays on audiences is powerful beyond words; one can always hear sobbing throughout the audience.

According to Tom Yarnal, “When the man convicted of murdering Mrs. Greene’s son was sentenced to life in prison, his (the killer’s) mother let out a scream which Mrs. Greene said was exactly the same as the scream she let out when she was told that her son, Emir, was killed. That’s very powerful, indeed.”

Beyond the Walls: The Road to Redemption is just one of several plays dealing with critical social issues that are performed by non-professional actors who are part of the Theater of Witness, which was created two decades ago by TOVA artistic director Teya Sepinuck and Susan Lowery. For more information about TOVA. visit www.tovaartisticprojects.org. For more information about upcoming performances, call 215-222-8682.