Trust: Second Acts in Young Lives

This is a story that should not have to be told. At age 12, Marlin was raped by two men in the bathroom of her grandmother's church in Honduras. She told no one. Two years later, she immigrated with her older brother Carlos to join their mother in Chicago where Carlos repeatedly raped her. Keeping these secrets nearly destroyed Marlin as she drank, took drugs, cut herself, ran away from home, and attempted suicide. She finally confided in a counselor who recommended the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP), a Chicago teen theater company that creates original plays from members' real life stories. TRUST follows Marlin, now 18, and her fellow teens in the APTP ensemble as they take her personal story and make it public. These astonishingly forthright kids create a transformative work of theater. APTP co-founder and artistic director David Feiner, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, is a warm and encouraging presence. The teens, all from difficult backgrounds, learn to trust him – and each other – in ways you might never think possible. –B.B.