00:00 It has been called a masterpiece of contemporary drama
00:02 and it's coming to Kern County.
00:04 The Ovation Theater downtown is putting on the play
00:07 How I Learned to Drive for one week only.
00:10 23 ABC's Ava Kirshner takes us behind the scenes
00:13 to see how the actors are preparing
00:15 for the play's tough conversations on and off the stage.
00:20 It's not your typical coming of age story.
00:22 How I Learned to Drive has difficult topics and themes
00:24 that can be hard for the audience to watch at times.
00:27 Now on the other side of the curtain,
00:28 hard to perform as well.
00:30 It is uncomfortable, it is raunchy, it is rough to watch.
00:34 And if we, the actors, who have to do this
00:38 for four shows in a row are feeling it,
00:41 then that means the audience is going to feel it tenfold.
00:44 How I Learned to Drive is a Pulitzer Prize winning drama
00:47 first performed in the late 90s.
00:49 The play follows the main character Lil' Bit
00:51 through her teenage years as her relationship
00:54 with her uncle becomes more and more inappropriate
00:57 and the abuse sets in.
00:58 Miles Barnum, who plays Uncle Peck in the show,
01:01 says the way the character is played is integral
01:03 to the nature of the relationship with Lil' Bit
01:05 and even the relationship with the audience.
01:08 Allows the audience to see the predator
01:10 as more human than in other stories,
01:13 which is, I think, a good way to portray this story
01:17 because oftentimes the person who is doing horrendous things
01:21 to people is not somebody that stands out
01:26 in being very noticeable as being a bad person.
01:29 When playing these complex characters in difficult scenes,
01:32 the actors tell me that what happens after
01:35 is the most important part of separating show and sanity.
01:39 The director, the directing team,
01:40 all of us take like a 20 minute break
01:42 after every show, after every run,
01:46 to get back to center,
01:48 just brush off everything we just did.
01:51 I think the standard protocol when you get overwhelmed
01:54 is to kind of have the permission in a rehearsal
01:56 of stepping out of it.
01:57 Liz B. Williams, who plays Lil' Bit,
02:00 says that despite the numerous accounts of abuse
02:02 within the show, the message is more about
02:04 the character's journey to heal.
02:06 This story is definitely a journey of Lil' Bit's healing
02:11 and how she takes all of the things that she's experienced
02:14 through her adolescence into her adulthood,
02:17 what she leaves behind, what she takes with her,
02:20 and what she decides to do with that experience.
02:22 I feel like a lot of the time when we talk,
02:24 especially about pedophilia and about that sort of abuse,
02:28 we hone in only on the abuse,
02:31 and so that becomes the person's entire identity.
02:33 Whereas those people who have experienced traumas like that,
02:38 that is not their whole identity.
02:40 Williams says that by talking about these experiences,
02:43 it can help ease the stigma around abuse
02:46 and give people opportunities to see they are not alone.
02:49 Because of the heavy nature of the show,
02:51 we actually have decided to do a talkback
02:53 after every performance.
02:54 So we don't just leave the audience kind of hanging.
02:57 We all kind of take the opportunity to decompress together
03:02 and to discuss things if they have questions that came up
03:05 or they wanna share stories or anything like that.
03:08 We're definitely open to that conversation
03:10 'cause this is a conversation that needs to happen.
03:12 How I Learned to Drive will be running
03:13 from August 3rd to August 6th at the Ovation Theater,
03:16 which shows at 7.30 and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
03:19 For more information on how to buy tickets,
03:21 you can head to our website, turnto23.com.
03:23 In downtown Bakersfield,
03:25 I'm Ava Kirshner, 23 ABC News, connecting you.
