Graffiti is a problem in every city. Trains, buildings and mailboxes are just a few properties graffiti artists call their canvases. Graffiti is incredibly expensive to clean up and is illegal. Some would say creating graffiti is choosing wrong over right.

One person who has chosen to help rid the city of graffiti is Doug Lawson, City College theater arts instructor and children’s theater coordinator.

In 2006, senior code enforcement officer Noel Eusebio from Sacramento’s Code Enforcement Department called Lawson looking for some assistance with a community-outreach play about graffiti that he’d been trying to produce for 12 years.

“I wrote it, stuck it in my file drawer and brought it out every two years to pitch it to my supervisor,” says Eusebio, who chose not to give up on his idea even though his supervisors told him there was no funding.

Lawson, who was looking for new play ideas when Eusebio called, said he could help write the script. With some feedback from students and Eusebio, Lawson’s script became The Fall of X, a community outreach play for middle school kids performed by students in Lawson’s Theatre Arts 407 class.

The Fall of X is in demand by educators throughout the Sacramento City Unified School District, some of the production costs are covered by a grant from Kaiser
Permanente. Several of the actors have performed in the production for multiple semesters.

“It’s a great source of pride that it’s working so well,” Lawson says. “I see students growing and maturing because of the experience.”

Lawson, 52, is a down-to-earth, creative type. He’s a jeans, T-shirt and ponytail kind of guy, an I-don’tneed- any-awards-for-my-plays kind of guy.

As a theater arts instructor, Lawson wears many hats. Not only does he teach acting courses, but he also writes and produces children’s plays for City College’s Storytime Theatre and for two troupes of acting students that perform his plays at local schools. Needless to say, his closet-like office near the college’s main auditorium is packed full of scripts, children’s literature and props.

Lawson crafted The Fall of X as a 25-minute, high-energy performance that has a DJ, a chorus of dancers, and just a few props. The DJ, positioned in the middle of the dancing chorus, begins the play by blasting hip-hop tunes from a large boom box. The actors use jargon and dance moves the kids understand. The play’s narrator, Officer Franks, even steps out into the audience and shakes hands.

The Fall of X not only talks about graffiti, but also explains a few life lessons. Lawson, a father of two, incorporates some fatherly advice about how one’s choices have outcomes.

Marques Davison, a City College theater arts student who plays Officer Franks, wants kids to think about their own lives after watching the performance: “They have a life. It’s a choice of how you are going to take care of your own life.”

After the play ends, the actors break the kids into small groups and encourage discussion about how the play relates to the children’s lives. Outreach workers from teen crisis center Diogenes Youth Services provide additional support.

Lawson, who’s been teaching and writing plays at City College since 1992, hopes the students who watch The Fall of X choose right over wrong.

“Maybe some statistic number down the road may reflect a dip in crime or a dip in gang involvement,” he says. “I don’t know. It might have that effect.”