Finding the Right Character: Our approach to Each One Reach One
Each One Reach One provides tutoring and mentoring programs for incarcerated youth. Our story profiles the journey of one young man who, with the help of tutors and this unique playwriting program, was able to get his GED and beat the odds.
There’s a simple law of storytelling: that a story is only as powerful as the people you choose to tell it. In video, they must be memorable, have emotional resonance and the kind of person audiences won’t soon forget.
In telling the story of Each One Reach One (EORO), a non-profit that offers writing and mentoring programs for incarcerated youth, photojournalist Ted Allen and I were captured by the story of Angel Carrion (pictured above). After being in and out of the San Francisco Juvenile Detention system for more than two years, Angel got hooked on playwriting. In it, he found a path to heal his family relationships as well as a confidence that motivated him to complete of his GED and change his life for good.
Recognizing that “people will forget what you tell them, but never forget how you make them feel,” we decided that the organizational story of EORO would most effectively in the context of Angel’s. We knew that people may not remember the EORO’s mission statement, program objectives or statistics…but would not soon forget this unforgettable now 18 year old man.
As such what was most challenging about this story was what we had to leave on the cutting room floor. They were amazing stories of the organization’s founder Robin Sohnen (Left) who, in what she describes as a post divorce midlife crisis, met a young man whose life was transformed through playwriting and decided she needed to do something to help others just like him.
Then there was Harold Atkins (Center), Each One Reach One’s program manager, who spent sixteen years in San Quentin prison and now lives to teach others how “to not be known for their last mistake”. Or John Rodogno, of San Francisco Juvenile Probation who over the years has watched dozens of other young inmates have their lives transformed through the power of playwriting.
In his book “Write for the Ear, Shoot for the Eye, Aim for the Heart,” Al Tompkins advises storytellers to “tell a big story with small characters that are closest to it.” While the story of Angel Carrion may, by some estimations, be small…we expect it will have a big impact on others facing similar challenges and in promoting the work of the program that forever changed his life.
Here is the video:
