Shaina Aber has long wanted to share hundreds of compelling accounts of refugees and other people forcibly displaced from their homes around the globe.

As associate director for advocacy at Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, Aber wanted to let the world see inside the organization's 30 years of service.

Through a series of serendipitous conversations and a couple of phone calls, Aber found a willing collaborator in Jesuit High School theater director Ed Trafton.

Tonight at Jesuit's Black Box Theater in Carmichael, an ensemble of area high school students under Trafton's direction present the world premiere of "Imago Dei: Journeys of Courage, Hope & Home." The theater production is based on real-life experiences of refugees and those who help them.

"I was saying some of these stories were so moving that they somehow should be made public in a way that reaches beyond our website or various active donors," Aber said after arriving in Sacramento from Washington, D.C., for the premiere.

The refugee service commissioned Trafton and his students to create the work based on previous documentary-style theater pieces he had created at Jesuit.

"We wanted a piece we can use to raise awareness at other parishes, schools and universities throughout the country," Aber said.

Under Trafton, who's taught at the Carmichael school for 22 years, Jesuit drama has produced and performed numerous documentary theater pieces including the well-known "The Laramie Project" in 2005 about the murder of gay student Matthew Shepard.

More recently, the students created and performed "Achilles in America (2008)" about U.S. soldiers facing post-traumatic stress after their service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year, it was "Tower Stories: A 9/11 Project," which they called "a meditation on faith and doubt at Ground Zero."

"I love the form," said Trafton, who noted that he was impressed by a production of "God's Country" at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival about 20 years ago. The fact-based drama documents the murder of Jewish radio talk-show host Alan Berg by white supremacists.

"That was one of the first times where contemporary politics and contemporary ideas collided with theatricality in a way that was just incredibly exciting and revelatory," Trafton said.

Trafton later staged the play at Jesuit. He felt the style and substance of the work made sense in the context of the school's mission.

"Social justice is a huge part of Jesuit education, and it's a very important part of our curriculum across the board," Trafton said. "All the disciplines touch on these themes and ideas."

Trafton's method has always included involving the students in making the work, but the amount of material they were given by JRS along with their own research made organizing it a challenge. The often oppressive nature of the content was similarly daunting. They wondered how they could put the stories on stage.

"These stories are so grim. This material is so overwhelming. How on earth do people work in this field?" Trafton mused. He said they figured things out almost accidentally while looking through the organization's correspondence.

"We glanced down at their letterhead and saw their mission is to accompany, serve, advocate."

The light bulbs went on.

"We took all the research we had and put it into those three macroscopic categories," Trafton said. "We started shaping and trimming from there and it became a very elegant organizational principle.

"It did something else that was also wonderful. It prevented the piece from being so completely fatalistic. That trajectory moves inevitably towards hope with a capital 'H.' "

The students are completely involved in creating the material they perform. The male students come from Jesuit, and the young women come from St. Francis, Rio Americano and El Camino high schools for this production.

"It's a really special brand of kid who auditions for a piece where there's no text, and the minute the audition starts, the clock is ticking," Trafton said. "We've essentially had eights weeks to go from the blank page to this premiere."

Trafton had student assistant directors and script supervisors John Flynn and Joanna Glum work on editing the material. They also helped coach the actors in their performance approaches.

"We thought we couldn't really do justice to the refugees by trying to do accents so we're just doing inflections to get the emotion," Flynn said.

Flynn, a senior at Jesuit, is working on his third fact-based play with Trafton.

"I really like these documentary plays because they mean more. It makes the audience feel something for people who actually exist and understand problems that are in our lives today," Flynn said.

The stories will be presented modestly with no affectation or artifice.

"We decided we're not going to attempt to portray refugees," Trafton said, explaining why there will be no costumes or makeup for the performers.

"We're not going to do a literal set either," he said. "It's a very abstract space. The image I was giving the designers was imagine there's this raft that's adrift on this black sea.

"What ends up happening is the company comes on stage, and once they go up on those boards, they don't leave the entire time."

Aber has been thrilled with the outcome so far.

"Their process sounds so phenomenal and so organic how the kids have worked through their own issues of understanding empathy," Aber said. What comes through in the work she's heard Trafton read to her is the commonality of human experience.

"We're trying to educate people about issues facing refugees worldwide, in part, because we think it's everyone's story," Aber said. "People came to this country from all different walks of life.

"They were often forced to come to this country or forced to leave lands within this country, and I think there's such an important connection Americans need to make to the stories of refugees."

While Trafton believes in the power of theater, he also understands the limitations of what they can do with the work.

"We can never, ever with an 80-minute piece deal with the enormity of this issue," Trafton said. "All we can do with the utmost respect and simplicity is tell these stories in a very simple way and give voice to so many millions who are voiceless."

Yet, for both Aber and Trafton, this is theater for a greater purpose.

"We wanted them to write a piece of theater that would invite audiences to stand in the shoes of refugees and understand their journeys and understand why for the Catholic community this is a question of faith," Aber said.

"We see this as means to an end and use the art form to talk about ideas," Trafton added.

IMAGO DEI: JOURNEYS OF COURAGE, HOPE & HOME

WHAT: The drama company at Jesuit High School created this documentary-style piece for Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. The nonprofit has collected many stories as it has helped refugees and other people driven from their homes by conflict, natural disaster, economic injustice or violation of human rights.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m today and Saturday, Thursday and Nov. 11, Nov. 12; 2 p.m Nov. 13

WHERE: The Black Box Theater in the Harris Center at Jesuit High School, opposite the gym at 900 Gordon Lane, Carmichael

COST: $15 general; $10 students

INFORMATION: (916) 482-6060, www.jesuithighschool.org

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