Marcus and Mackenzie are Detroit teens who come from different worlds.
Marcus attends a prestigious private school where he’s part of the debate club. Mackenzie goes to a public school and has to pass a security check to enter the building.
But both are dealing with the angst of being a teenager, mental health and the changes happening in their city, like gentrification.
That’s the plot of “Two Detroits,” the latest production from the city youth organization Teen HYPE. Rehearsing and performing an original play has become an annual tradition for the 21-year-old group, which educates metro Detroit teens on future leadership development and offers programs in theater and dance.
Written by Teen HYPE alumni Mallory Childs and co-directed by Detroit actor Henri Franklin and Cherry Sparks, the show premieres at 7 p.m. Friday at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
“The biggest thing was just being able to produce a show that spoke to people and made them feel heard as if their stories are important,” Childs told BridgeDetroit about the inspiration behind the play. “Sometimes, Detroit and the voices that we have within our community can be so overlooked.”
This performance is the fourth with the group for Makai Taylor, 21, who has a lead role in the production as Marcus.
The Detroiter has been a part of Teen HYPE since 2019 and serves as an adolescent health specialist, where he visits schools around Detroit and provides health resources to young people. Embodying Marcus has been challenging, Taylor said, since the character has intermittent explosive disorder (IED), a mental health condition marked by frequent impulsive anger outbursts or aggression.
“He deals with anger a lot from different sources,” Taylor said during a recent rehearsal at Teen Hype’s Rivertown headquarters. “I’m not a very angry person, so having to delve into that anger, not only his emotions, but what’s causing him to feel those ways is something that I’ve been having to tap into myself.”
But Taylor does relate to Marcus’ fierce love for his city and helping the youth.
“I’m a proud Detroiter,” he said. “No matter what room I’m in, I will always love and fight for my city. And I love how he (Marcus) works with the youth. I pour into those aspects of his character, him tutoring and working with other teens to help them grow. People may look at him as privileged because of where he goes to school, but he doesn’t look at himself that way. He doesn’t use that as a reason to help people. That’s just who he is.”
Authentic teen experiences
Childs said “Two Detroits” began as a collaboration with Teen HYPE while she was home during college winter break.
The 18-year-old freshman at Spelman College in Atlanta began talking to the youth program’s CEO Ambra Redrick, affectionately known as “Ms. Red.”
“She asked me how the play was going and I said, ‘The young people have picked a theme and we got an outline, but we’re a little stuck,’” Redrick said. “I told her that the young people felt really passionate about gentrification and this idea of exploring the two sides of the coin to Detroit.”
Childs spent the rest of winter break writing the play and working with Franklin and Sparks, Redrick said. The main sources of inspiration for Childs were voices from the young people in Teen HYPE and their personal experiences, she said.
“Two Detroits is not just about gentrification,” Childs said. “It touches on grief, mental health, on well-being support, and it raises awareness about a lot of issues that people face within the mental health realm.”
To write realistic characters and have their mental health struggles portrayed accurately, Childs consulted a therapist on coping strategies.
“There are real people that are going to be watching the play and real people that are experiencing these things, so it was incredibly important that we were as accurate as possible,” she said. “Black youth are not a monolith, and we do experience so many different things.”
Childs was introduced to Teen HYPE in seventh grade after her father came across the program. She said she’s been a theater kid ever since she was a little girl and got more into the space when she attended high school at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods. She wrote a play for the school’s theater program as well as some plays at church. Last year, she co-wrote Teen HYPE’s play “Strung,” which looked at the impact of social media on young people.
While Childs is studying pre-law at Spelman, the plan is to go to film school after she obtains her bachelor’s degree. After that, Childs plans to move on to law school.
She said it’s rewarding being part of another Teen HYPE production.
“We (Teen HYPE) feel it’s very important to continue the legacy of these plays and continue to give people a space to feel seen and heard and included in the conversations at the table,” she said.
As Teen HYPE marks its 21st anniversary serving kids in the community, Redrick said she has seen several examples of the “two Detroits,” from kids whose basic needs are met, to those who are severely under-resourced, or kids who have transportation and those that don’t.
“There are people who, every day, cross Eight Mile to take their kids to school, to go to restaurants,” Redrick said. “And then, there are other people that don’t cross Eight Mile because they don’t have insurance, because they’re afraid to get pulled over by the police.”
Redrick said she hopes when audiences see the play, that they feel inspired and recognize the power and brilliance of young people.
“I hope that it will be a reminder for adults to share their power, to give young people space to celebrate who they are,” she said. “I hope that it will challenge us to think about what our responsibility is in two Detroits and what it means to create one Detroit.”
Tickets are $25 and are available on Eventbrite.