(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- On Tuesday, March 19, the Montclair Town Council issued a proclamation declaring March 30, 2019, Teen Homelessness Awareness Day, and commending Vanguard Theater Company for its work to draw attention to teen runaways. March 30 is the day that Vanguard Theater Company presents Runaways, by Elizabeth Swados, in concert at the First Congregational Church in Montclair. Following the concert, many members of the teen cast will be holding a “Sleep Out” on the lawn of St. Luke’s Church.
Runaways is a musical collage about the hopes, dreams, fears, frustrations, loneliness, humor and anger, of young people estranged from their families and searching for themselves. Written, composed, choreographed and originally directed by Elizabeth Swados, the characters were taken from workshops conducted by Swados with real-life runaways in the late 1970s.
Runaways is presented by Vanguard Theater Company, directed by Janeece Freeman Clark, with choreography by Izryel Mathis, musical direction by Terri Gorgone, and fight choreography by Branden Mangan. It features a cast of 45 performers from New York and New Jersey.
One in 7 kids between the ages of 10 and 18 will run away from home at some point. That's equivalent to almost seven kids in the Runaways cast. On any given night, The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that there are more than 1.3 million homeless youths living unsupervised on the streets, in abandoned buildings, with friends or with strangers. These young people are at a much higher risk of physical abuse, sexual exploitation, mental health disabilities, substance abuse, and death. Over 5,000 unaccompanied youth die each year on the streets as a result of overdose, assault, illness, or suicide.
Vanguard’s production of Runaways is part of a special program called DREAM VTC, made possible in part by generous grants from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and TeeRico by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Because of their generosity, Vanguard was able to create several special opportunities to help the cast go deeper into their characters. At one rehearsal, VTC arranged to have a young man visit the cast who had previously found shelter at Covenant House, an organization that, for more than four decades, has helped transform and save the lives of more than a million homeless, runaway and trafficked young people. Hearing his story, and reading the stories of over 25 homeless youth in a photo and biography gallery Vanguard created at another rehearsal, affected the Runaways’ cast deeply. They decided that they wanted to do something to help. In addition to the March 30 concert in Montclair, the cast will perform in Passaic, Morris and Union Counties to bring awareness to Teen Homelessness.
