Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993                   TAG: 9311290163
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

PLAY, PLAYERS RAISE MONEY FOR YOUTH SHELTER

County's proposed Youth Emergency Shelter.

The Pulaski County High School Players already had announced that they would donate 20 percent of their ticket sales from Saturday night's performance of ``Midway'' to the shelter project.

They pretty well filled the middle section of the school's Little Theater auditorium but, at $1 a ticket, collected only slightly more than $40 for the shelter donation.

But representatives of the drama group also stationed themselves at the exits and accepted further donations from members of the audience specifically for the shelter. From that, they collected $206 and sent a check for that amount to Brenda Conner, juvenile intervention specialist with the Pulaski Police Department, later in the week.

Conner, a member of the task force from various agencies working with young people which has been putting together the shelter project this year, was among those attending the play. When it ended, the Players called her up to the stage to accept the shelter's share of ticket proceeds.

``At that time, I gave them a surprise,'' Conner said. She presented a plaque to student April Corvin, representing the drama group, from the task force in recognition of the group's work on behalf of the shelter.

That work went beyond donating a portion of the gate receipts. A segment of the play itself had been performed before a group of community leaders Oct. 26 when the task force announced its plans to establish an emergency shelter for young people in the coming year.

The segment was written with the shelter in mind, and dramatically illustrated some of the reasons young people might need an emergency shelter for a few days.

The entire play dealt with various aspects of young people. Parts of it were original work, and parts were lifted from other scripts written by and about teen-agers. It was brought together on three ministages, the circus-like ``Midway'' format of the title.

Conner said both ``the funny stuff and the heart-wrenching stuff really got the audience'' during the play's sole public performance. She heard people behind her whispering that they remembered ``what that's like'' as the teens in the production encountered typical embarrassments that are part of growing up. And there was absolute silence as the impact of a suicide scene hit viewers, she said.

``They've done a lot of work for us,'' she said. ``They really do care about the project.''

She did not know until later that the Players would be sending an even larger donation to the task force from the exit door solicitations. The additional money was enough for the task force to qualify for some matching funds from another source, she said.

``They put us over the top,'' she said. ``That's a big chunk.''