Jonathan Mallett is grateful for the positive impact the Augusta Mini Theatre Community Arts School has had on his life.
Now, more than a decade after he performed in his last play with the theatre, the 31-year-old will take the stage in the new Mini Theatre production The Common Denominator, which opens at 8 p.m. tonight at Augusta Technical College's Jack B. Patrick Technology Center.
Mr. Mallett plays Tiny Jenkins, a character based on a former Richmond County juvenile probation officer who used to keep neighborhood teens in line.
"I lived in just about every project in Augusta," said Mr. Mallett, a junior at Augusta State University. "I've never been (detained in the Youth Development Center), regardless of my low-income housing. Everything everyone told me I wouldn't do, I did. I wanted to be the opposite of what statistically was expected."
For the past 10 years, Tyrone Butler, the founder and executive director of the Augusta Mini Theatre, has staged plays at youth detention centers around the state. He listened to detainees' stories of how they got into trouble. The common denominator in the teens' stories was that they came from broken home. Mr. Butler wrote Common Denominator, a series of skits, based on the stories he heard.
Although Mr. Mallett was determined to never end up in a detention center, he said he could relate to some of the characters in the play.
Growing up in what he calls an unstable home, Mr. Mallet said he moved from one public housing project to the next, briefly lived on the streets and sometimes had to raise his two younger sisters alone ñ all before he was 12.
Living not far from Paine College as a child, he would go to the college's summer youth programs because "it gave me something to do to keep from going home." One summer, the mini theatre held a drama class there, which piqued his interest.
The next year, while living with his grandparents, Mr. Mallet's social worker took him to join the theater. He remembers his first play, My Dream, which he said detailed his life and allowed him to look at his life from an actor's perspective.
"The mini theatre was a turning point in my life. Before I got (there), my grades were Cs, Ds and Fs. But when I left middle school, I applied to Davidson (John S. Davidson Fine Arts School) and A.R. Johnson (Health Science and Engineering) and got accepted to both," Mr. Mallett said, adding that he chose Davidson because of his love for acting.
Mr. Mallett still remembers what he considers significant accomplishments in eighth grade at East Augusta Middle School ñ becoming student council president and Beta Club vice president ñ two feats he hadn't even thought he could do.
"My grades went to As and Bs," he said. "It got to the point where my grades were so good my grandparents took me back up to the school to make sure I'd gotten the right report card."
Mr. Mallett went on to briefly attend Paine and Augusta colleges, and then enlisted in the Army.
"When I first met Jonathan, a kid was throwing nickels down the hall, and I went out to investigate and it was him. I told him what we did and didn't do at the mini theater and that started our relationship, but I said to myself, ëOh my Lord, I think I've got a real hardhead here,'\\u2009 " Mr. Butler said. "But he ended up being one of most well-mannered young men I've ever met. He's a gentleman."
Mr. Mallett was a sergeant by the time he returned to Augusta and left the Army in 2003, and has since performed in The Wiz with the Augusta Players, in plays at Augusta State University and has been in Windsor Jewelers commercials. As he puts it, he is an ASU "communications major with a 2.95 GPA looking for job," and is appreciative for all that Mr. Butler's arts school did.
"It's helped me and a lot of other students as well. A lot have gone on to do better things," he said. "I can't say that all of them were in the situation I was, but everyone that's gone through there has come out in better circumstances."
Reach C. Samantha McKevie at (706) 823-3552 or samantha.mckevie@augustachronicle.com.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Common Denominator, the Augusta Mini Theatre Community Art School's salute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
WHEN: 8 p.m. tonight and Friday; 3, 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Augusta Technical College's Jack B. Patrick Technology Center
COST: $12 adults; $10 students; $8 per child with youth groups
PHONE: 722-0598
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