ONSTAGE, STUDENTS SHOW TRUE COLORS

DAVID NAKAMURA WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER AFTER THE BELL occ. , in a series Thursday, October 12, 2000 ; Page M10

Student life in Prince George's County schools is not limited to books and sports. Once the final bell rings at the end of the day, students participate in a whole range of extracurricular activities. The Prince George's Extra will chronicle them in this column.

(First in an occasional series.)

By his own account, Roosevelt High senior Miguel Zambrana, 17, was aimless this past summer when he accompanied his younger sister to a special theatrical camp for students called Colours. Before, the only time he seemed to get excited was when he was getting into trouble--fights and petty crimes that resulted in his being detained by police a few times, Zambrana said.

He figures he was the kind of guy who normally would steer far clear of Colours, a performance group for Prince George's County students of all ages that specializes in singing, dancing and acting. But when a few of the other students persuaded him to stay awhile, Zambrana gave in.

At first, he hated it--he was embarrassed he was to hear his own voice singing show tunes. But by the end of the summer, Zambrana had not only stuck with it, he had written a couple of scenes for a play and was awarded the Most Outstanding Drama Student award by his peers.

"I was too shy at first because I had to sing and dance. I didn't think I could do it," Zambrana recalled recently at Parkdale High, where the two dozen members of Colours practiced their routines after school. "But I was surprised. I liked being onstage. This gave me focus and keeps me busy."

Started in 1992 at Charles Carroll Middle School by Jason Cook, now 31 and a drama teacher at Parkdale, Colours has served as a creative outlet for hundreds of Prince George's students over the years. Open to any student in the county, Colours is one of the few extracurricular activities for students that reaches the entire school system.

And the troupe is one of the best known, having performed at various functions in the county and at shows across the country. Most recently, the group wowed Superintendent Iris T. Metts and the county's 186 principals at a convocation at C.H. Flowers High in Springdale. The group even got Metts to do a little two-step during one number, a sight that drew appreciative laughs from the principals who were not used to seeing their boss in such a casual moment.

Roosevelt junior Farida "Fay" Kalala, 17, who is one of the co-student directors along with Parkdale junior Chris Law, 16, says the appeal of Colours goes beyond its entertainment value. In the songs its members select and the plays they perform, the group delivers a message: Students should be noticed and their concerns taken seriously by adults.

Even the name Colours is meant to invoke the idea that students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds can come together as one. (Cook used the British spelling of colors because he decided its uniqueness sets the group apart.)

"I like what Colours stands for," Kalala said. "It inspires. The message to adults is that we want them to know we're out here and not doing just bad things. That we have a dream of our own and don't give up on us. To kids, the message is, 'Here are kids your own age, your peers, doing positive things.' "

The group, which has performed in Miami, Pennsylvania, Indiana and other states, performs songs that range from "Seasons of Love," from the Broadway musical "Rent," to super-pop group 'N Sync's "Space Cowboy." Students also do musicals such as "The Wiz" and write and perform their own plays.

Members say they also make a point of going into the audience and touching people physically--grabbing their hands or holding their shoulders, in an effort to make the show more personal.

Their next major performance will be Nov. 4 and Nov. 14, when they will entertain students from various county schools at the Publick Playhouse in Cheverly.

On a recent evening, the students, wearing black T-shirts with the Colours logo and motto, "For Those Who Believe," practiced their routines under the gaze of Cook and vocal director Keitha Shepherd, who is a teacher at Parkdale and a member of the successful R & B group Pure Soul, which had several hits in the mid-1990s.

Half the group lined up and practiced hip-hop dance moves--some laughing as they tripped over themselves--and the others gathered around a piano to sing with Shepherd.

Law, who said he was skeptical about Colours when his mother made him join, says he fell in love with performing. He said students must realize that "when they come here, it's not just to have fun but to work hard. If you're just coming here for fame or to be popular, it's not going to work."

Cook, who came to the county in 1992 from Miami, said he started Colours to fill an educational void. In Miami, he said, the school system had several performing arts schools and all of its middle schools offered drama. But while Prince George's offers a performing arts magnet program at Thomas Pullen and at Suitland High, there is no countywide program at the middle school level.

"I thought that was missing," he said.

The 25 students in this year's Colours program come from Parkdale, Eleanor Roosevelt and Laurel high schools, Martin Luther King Jr. and Wiliam Wirt middle schools and Oakcrest Elementary. They meet at Parkdale twice a week for several hours after school to practice and do homework in the mandatory study hall.

There is also a related in-school program at seven elementary schools, which offer the experience during school hours.

Students who are interested can join, provided they maintain at least a 2.2 grade point average (on a scale of 0 to 4.0).

Cook also has started a new Saturday program that is open to all students.

But Cook's efforts to build his program countywide have come up against several hurdles. One problem is that in a school system where principals turn over at a high rate--there were about 30 new principals in the county's 186 schools this year--keeping support for the program is difficult. Ironically, the school where he began the troupe, Charles Carroll, recently dropped it under the direction of a new principal.

Even more threatening was Metts's initial decision to cut Cook's job at Parkdale shortly after Metts arrived in July, 1999.

Metts's top deputy, Franklin Rishel, was looking for ways to trim the budget and recommended that several positions be terminated. Cook wasn't a drama teacher solely for Parkdale, and Rishel didn't see the need for a teacher based at Parkdale who spent much of the day traveling to other schools to check on their Colours programs.

Cook says he strongly considered going back to Miami. But he pitched his case to Metts with the help of Howard Burnett, a longtime county educator who had become Metts's executive assistant. Metts relented.

"We needed to inform them of the service to schools and Parkdale," Burnett said. "Once they had the information and had an opportunity to review it, there was no problem at all. They made sure it was budgeted."

That was good news for the students, who say they have spread their message far beyond the county's borders.

Kalala recalls a trip last year to a small, predominantly white high school in Newport, Pa. The Colours students were nervous because they weren't sure their audience would be accepting of a mostly-black performance troupe.

But, Kalala said, "they loved us. We thought they might not enjoy hip-hop because we didn't look like them, but we got along well. We hung out and they sang with us."

It was a small practical payoff for a group with an ambitious philosophical mission.

For more information about Colours, contact Jason Cook at 301-486-3729, e-mail him at colours@excite.com or visit the Web site at www.colours.org.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.