Growing Pains - Charlie Brown and friends are all grown up and struggling with issues in DOG SEES GOD at Spotlight Youth Theatre

by Haddi Meyer

“Charlie Brown is our 5-year-old imagination, and Dog Sees God is our adult reality.”

That's how Ali Giordano, one of the many talented teens acting in Spotlight Youth Theatre's production of Bert V. Royal's Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, compared this dark satire of the Peanuts comics to the original tales of Charlie Brown and his friends.

Giordano is playing Van’s Sister, the character who is the teenage mirror of Lucy. The Lucy we all know from the Peanuts comic strips and cartoons is gone, and instead Giordano described how she's become a lonely, timid and unstable girl.

“In Dog Sees God she’s all alone. The only person she really has contact with is Charlie Brown, CB (the character's name in the show). When she [was] young she was kind of immature, she thinks she knows what’s real and what’s not, what’s going on in life, but she doesn’t and that’s what’s funny. Now, she’s all grown up, she knows what’s good and what’s bad, what's real, and part of it kind of scares her in a way but in her mind it’s we’ve all grown up and it’s time to move forward.”

All of the characters in Dog Sees God are the darker, angsty, struggling and slightly older versions of themselves, including our faithfully clumsy, snoopy loving Charlie Brown, or in Dog Sees God, CB. Jack Taylor plays our leading man, but he isn’t quite the same Charlie Brown we’ve always known and loved.

“He’s become this big presence at his high school. He’s become a bully, and he’s much more respected now,” Taylor adds.

CB and the other characters aren’t two dimensional either. Each goes through their own path throughout the show. Taylor said of CB, “from the beginning to the end, there is definitely a big change. There is a growth within him.”

Taylor also stated that in order to play his big mean Charlie Brown, he pulled from his own experiences as a victim of bullying.

“Growing up I feel like everyone deals with a bully. I’ve lived in three states and in each one of them there has been at least one guy who isn’t really the best.”

Dog Sees God deals with more issues than just bullying. Director Kenny Grossman described the show as touching “on bullying, homosexuality...teenage drug use, tolerance, awareness, acceptance, teenage drinking.”

Grossman said the show provides a painfully honest look into “the everyday life of a teenager. This show is truth.”

Giordano agreed saying that “some people think that with theatre, you’re lying to people, you’re just acting, but I think with this play, especially, you are telling the truth. We want you to believe in what’s really going on.”

Dog Sees God follows the lives of the main Peanuts crew, under various pseudonyms, as they struggle with the issues that teens across America struggle with everyday. The show focuses on some incredibly dark and intense topics, but the brutal honesty of the show is what makes it so valuable in the modern day and led Grossman to a very specific reason for choosing to direct Dog Sees God this season.

“The number one theme in this show, is teen suicide. Teen suicide in Arizona is the number two cause of death for teenagers. Number one is car accidents.” Grossman explained, “I chose to do this show because it shows a different angle of what teenage life is and what teenagers go through. Not everything is all hunky dory and footloose and fancy free. These are real problems that teenagers face.”

Spotlight is also partnering with Teen Lifeline for the run of this show. Teen Lifeline is a suicide hotline specifically for Phoenix teenagers, and they will be present at every show with a table ready to speak to anyone who might need help. Grossman said his goal was to make teenagers aware that they aren’t alone, and that someone is there to always support them. He also mentioned that after two performances of the show there would be talk backs with the cast, and that Teen Life Line would also be present to speak with anyone who had questions.

“If there is one kid, just one kid that ends up picking up the phone and calling them because of the awareness that happened here, then doing a show like this is worth it.”

The show isn’t all dark and gloomy however. Grossman says the show will “give all the feels. [The audience is] gonna laugh, they’re gonna cry, they’re gonna be angry, sad, nervous. I just want them to feel everything and really appreciate what these young people are doing in the show.”

All of the emotions and beauty of the show are summed up in Van’s Sister. Giordano focused on one thing she wanted people to understand most.

“I want everyone to see that’s she’s human. There’s no such thing as normal, everyone has something different about them and all and all she is really just a human...but it really teaches the truth. I want people to get the truth from this play.”

CLICK HERE for more information on Dog Sees God, which runs in repertory with You're a Good Man Charlie Brown at Spotlight Youth Theatre from October 20th to November 4th

For anyone struggling with any teenage issues, you can reach Teen Lifeline in Maricopa County, AZ at 602-248-8336 (TEEN), or statewide in Arizona at 800-248-8336 (TEEN) You can also reach Teen Lifeline at https://teenlifeline.org/