Not Your Mama's Bus Tour (continued)

 

After a whirlwind three weeks of preparation, including the construction of an informational Web site (http://www.jot.org/bustour), alerting the press and — oh yeah, writing and rehearsing the script — the preview evening had finally come.

In the computer room where the Writers Group meets, Charles Lee, the inspiration for the project, was positively glowing. Originally from Gary, Indiana, Lee has spent most of his life in Chicago since his days as a troubled teen, when his family sent him here to help keep him out of jail. Lee, whose work has been published in Streetwise and the Journal of Ordinary Thought, cites the Writers Group as "good therapy, a good stabilizer" because it "allows me to put thoughts on paper. I don't want to do anything that would make me not be part of this group." He hopes to one day work as a substance abuse counselor. Watching everyone milling around, looking over scripts and testing out headset microphones purchased hours before at Radio Shack, Lee reflects, "Some people go to the museum to see the dinosaur, you know, and I like going to the museum, but this — this is all over that. This is my experience."

William Plowman gives the passengers a scare in a brief stint as "the bus driver."

The genius of the scripts — and their readiness in three weeks' time — is that the performers are telling their own stories, in their own voices. Before taking her place at the helm of the bus, Cheryl Murphy, the bus driver, recited her poem, "Domestic Violence: A Point of View." The poem recounts the story of her grandmother, who died from domestic abuse, and Cheryl's own story of leaving her abuser to save herself and her unborn child. Cheryl is a Streetwise vendor and one of the original members of the Streetwise Writers Group. Later, crossing the parking lot, she proudly shows us a key ring bearing a photo of her daughter, Tiffany. "This is my safe child," she says, clutching the photo to her chest.