Translation of article in Handelsblatt of July 4, 2007
Title: "Das Wunder vom Wedding"

The Miracle of Wedding

In one of the Berlin districts with the biggest social problems an American turns frustrated young people into a successful musical company

By Thomas Hanke, Berlin

Nowhere else are more people living on social security, nowhere else are the language problems of students more serious, nowhere else is there a higher percentage of foreigners than in Wedding, a district of Berlin. This is why this district does not have to worry about its national reputation. Although it is not the kind of publicity you would wish for. Together with Neukoelln [another district of Berlin], Wedding and Moabit [a part of Wedding] are considered the biggest concerns in the capital. The district of Mitte, of which Wedding is a part, registers 20 percent of all criminal offences committed in Berlin. Some people even speak of the "Bronx of Berlin."

There is hardly anything left of the line "Red Wedding greets you as comrades: be ready with your fists!" of a revolutionary song. If fists are flying today, they do not belong to revolutionary German laborers but to "young people with a migration background," as the official German administrative language puts it.

Peter Jerke knows his clients; he is in charge of prevention projects for Police District 36 in Wedding, where he was born and raised. "One should not exaggerate; in the past we also had physical violence. What has changed, however, is the quality of the violence." In his youth, people fought until someone was lying on the floor. Then the fight was over. "Today, it goes further, and the victim on the ground is often kicked," Jerke says.

You have to be rather crazy to choose Wedding - of all districts - to start a musical project with young people. Todd Fletcher is crazy. This is at least what the 38-year-old New Yorker composer says about himself. At the end of last year he talked to the Ernst-Schering-Oberschule about whether he could rehearse a musical with 100 students. Sue Timken, wife of the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, supported Fletcher's work.

"The school immediately showed an interest," Principal Hilmar Pletat says. "We saw the opportunity to get out of our daily routine." In neighborhoods such as Wedding, motivating people is not an easy task: The students, of whom up to 80 percent have a migration background, do not have high expectations for their future. Prominent role models, particularly for the boys, are cool and brutal "gangsta rappers."

However, Pletat's jaw dropped when he realized that Fletcher's plans were not completely ripe yet. For example, he asked the American about the title of the musical. Fletcher replied that he had not yet found a title. To be precise, the musical did not yet exist. The students were supposed to develop it jointly with him. However, the date for the first public performance was already set: The middle of the year. More than that, it was not to be in German but in English.

"And this is supposed to be done with students who often cannot articulate themselves, not to mention sing or dance," wonders Pletat even to this day. An impossible task. However, the school agreed to it: "We saw the enormous opportunity to reach out to students from families where education has no tradition - outside the boringly normal classes," says Thomas Schumann, one of three teachers who worked on the project.

It all started in the middle of February. "Right from the start, the young people were enthusiastic," Fletcher says. "Theatre, music, and dance immediately appealed to them. On the other hand, during the casting sessions they all said: I won't make it, I can't do it."

But then they could, they really could! Last weekend saw the gala performance at the musical theatre Atze in Wedding. Outside, there were many young people with black T-shirts and baseball caps, inside big names: Federal President Horst Koehler and his wife, Interior Minister Wolfang Schaeuble, and the Ambassador and his wife. Somehow, most might have expected a moving dilettantism, and in the end they would all applaud conscientiously.

But that's not what happened: Right from the first scene the audience was fascinated by voices that were so full and powerful as if after years of vocal training and by a self-confidence in the dancing that was simply sweeping them along.

The almost 100 actors made up the story themselves. It is about their life in the neighborhood and about how the musical came into being: A major street party is planned. At the beginning all agree, but then, under the influence of a small group dismissing their efforts, they start to argue.

The party turns out to be a flop. Some of the boys try to stop their girlfriends from participating in further rehearsals, and not just with verbal violence. The girls getting back at the young machos is one of the strongest scenes in the musical – as is the performance of the belly-dancers and a break-dance group, and that of a rapper: "It is my turn now, and if you are afraid, you've got to go home and watch children's television," sings thirteen-year-old Hassan. "He was so eager to include the words killing or murder," Fletcher laughs. "I told him: Hassan, this has nothing to do with your life, you are supposed to sing about yourself." In the end, all are singing together: "Give Us a Chance."

How was Fletcher able to achieve this miracle and turn frustrated young people without any self-confidence into a musical company? "These kids have huge potential. You just have to give them a chance – and demand a lot." He was strict, Fletcher admits, but there must not be any compromises in regard to the quality. The actors have accepted it.

Koehler was enthusiastic: "This is even better than some musicals I have seen on Broadway." Schaeuble became a different person. Really moved, he sits among the actors who all want a photo with him. And then the political pragmatist comes through again: "One thing is clear, the whole Conference of [Laender] Ministers for Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerkonferenz) has to see this; somehow I will arrange it."

Someone else is also moved: Jerke, the officer in charge of prevention projects. He has been a police officer for 24 years now: "I know many of the young people from the streets. I was really moved by the fact that they were able to achieve something like this – I became teary-eyed."

How is it going to continue? If a sponsor can be found, there will be a tour in the fall. This would then be the second miracle of Wedding.