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“It’s not the performance, but the people you’re going to see,” says Director Ping Chong (pictured above).

Friday at the Painted Bride Art Center at Second and Vine is the debut of Secret History: The Philadelphia Story. Secret History is part of the “Undesirable Elements Project” in which Chong shares underserved voices. Philly’s version explores the first-hand experiences of urban and suburban teenagers with violence and conflict. Six teens help each other tell their own true-life stories, reading from scripts with no scenery or costumes.

“The audience learns you’re there to hear these children,” Chong says. “To hear those voices is to experience their obstacles, for some, that is experiencing urban war.”

Of the six-person cast, four are from North Philadelphia neighborhoods, one is from Chester and one is from Montgomery County. Only three have ever been on a stage. None will be even 18 by the first performance.

Since 1992, Chong has led 40 of these similarly organized “Undesirable Elements” performances. New York-based Chong was commissioned by the Village of Arts and Humanities, a community arts center in the Fairhill neighborhood of North Philadelphia. He says he focuses on displaying underserved voices of all kinds and has done his performances in Japan and the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and across the United States.

“When you live outside this world, any world, you cannot understand it,” Chong says. “This is a window.”

Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA
$15 adult/$10 student
Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

People’s Light & Theatre
39 Conestoga Rd. Malvern, PA 19355
March 6 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., free with reservations
Contact: Nancy Shaw
610-647-1900, ext. 101

Village of Arts and Humanities
2544 Germantown Avenue, Fairhill, Philadelphia
March 13 at 7:30 p.m., free with reservations
Contact: Ayoka Quinones
215-225-7830, ext 205