The stage is dim as three boys lay still on operating tables under red sheets. A mother draws near what she thinks to be her son — cold, lifeless and dead due to a senseless act of street crime.
Each young boy’s life was snatched from him before it truly started as the three bodies, once full of life, are now but flesh and bone. One charred from burns, another fatally stabbed with the knife still in his body and the other shot in the head.
To some this may just be a morgue scene on a stage set for the theater, but for others this is the day-to-day existence that illustrates their life on the streets. That is exactly what the creative minds of the play “Kila’Delphia” hope to do: bring depictions of reality to the stage, educate, help, heal, offer resources and inspire change through an alternative lifestyle.
“Once those things are done we can offer young people the opportunity to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Antwan Demarco, playwright of “Kila’Dephia” said.
Demarco is no stranger to street life. Raised in Chicago, he lost a lot of his closest friends to gang violence, but after he gave his life to Christ his ministry became clear as he established an instant connection and drive to want to help young people.
“At the peak of the work I was doing in Chicago I was called to move to Philadelphia, Pa. I knew that something had to be greater for me in Philadelphia,” Demarco said.
Yet great could not even begin to measure the wealth of change he and his wife’s play would create in the homes and lives of those who filled the seats of the theater to embark on the journey of what youth are comparing to the hit show “The Wire.” Led to make a difference but unsure of the methods to utilize change, Demarco says he didn’t want to orchestrate a youth forum to show young people how violence destroys lives. He needed something they could relate to — thus prompted the writing of “Kila’Delphia.”
Sarena Taylor, co-writer and wife of the playwright says, “Though it is called ‘Kila’Delphia’ it is more of a state of mind. We wanted to write a realistic story to portray how senseless the killings in Philadelphia were.”
This tale is focused around the lives of three brothers with different mothers whose lives eventually cross paths. Each young man is a realistic representation of youth in urban America and the hardship encountered in the street life.
Originally staged in Philadelphia, the play’s success led to other performances in Baltimore, New York and various parts of New Jersey. Realizing that violence is not just a factor on the East Coast but everywhere, Demarco says his obedience led him elsewhere as God told him to go to seven areas in the U.S. and set this production to run simultaneously.
A show like no other, this gospel reality stage play has swept the East Coast by storm and is hoping to do the same in the Midwest. Running for more than one year in its opening state, the reactions and responses from youth have created a serious dialogue between families and true transformations in young adult lives.
“Young people will come up to you during the spiritual proponent and say, ‘Hey I used to be a drug dealer but now I’m turning my life over to God,’” Taylor said. “My husband even had a young man turn over five guns and drugs after seeing the play, so the effect of this play is amazing.”
Tuane Hearn, marketing director for the up and coming production, says he is in full support of this much needed message to Indianapolis youth.
“I believe this play makes people aware of the need for the gospel inside of everyday life by addressing gun violence and other things that are plaguing our community,” Hearn said.
Through Demarco Plays production company, both playwrights, wife and husband, hope to use these messages portrayed on stage from “Kila’Delphia” as an outreach opportunity to bring resources to the community.
“Everything we write about we write to expose it and we write it to give you solutions,” Demarco said.
