MILWAUKEE — When the curtains open at Douglas Middle School on Sunday night, the spotlight will fall on an ongoing problem facing Milwaukeeans for years.
The Kia Boyz.
Their videos go viral for their reckless abandonment behind the wheel. The aforementioned boys act out in their adolescence, putting everyone else in peril.
“We need to do something about these KIA Boyz,” Monte Mabra said. “Can you write a play about it? I said, okay.”
Mabra has written several plays about real-life issues facing the community, including stories about the importance of fathers, breast cancer awareness, and on addiction. His latest will hit the stage Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.
“Putting them on stage puts the person on the outside looking in,” Mabra said. “So they can see themselves and sometimes can see others and it gives them the information that they need to make a better decision.”
Kias and Hyundais make up the vast majority of stolen vehicles since 2021. According to Milwaukee Police, these two manufacturers make up 60.2 percent of all vehicles stolen in the city.
This play looks to reverse the years of amplifying the acts of kids in the KIA Boyz, by highlighting the real-life impacts of their reckless choices.
“This play isn’t to give them notoriety,” Mabra said. “It’s actually to let them know the cause and effect of their actions.”
Mabra says, the story starts at the end; a funeral for a woman and her daughter, innocent bystanders killed in a high-speed chase with the KIA Boyz.
“Please, God,” a woman bellows. “Why?”
At the funeral, a mother cries out to the heavens to understand why this happened to her daughter and granddaughter. A chilling reality of what families across the area have experienced time and time again.
“It’s a message to the KIA Boyz that their actions have consequences,” Mabra said. “It affects the lives of not only their families but other families.”
The play is a mix of adult and child actors, including 4th grader Rayvenn Jones Golden.
“They need to learn a lesson,” Jones Golden said. “If you steal cars you can end up dead.”
Jones Golden is a happy student who loves writing. It’s why the juxtaposition of her role is hard to see. She plays the part of a KIA Girl, whose friends join her in stealing a car and lead police on the chase that ends the life of two people.
She feels, by being a part of this play, it can finally help connect with kids her age who choose a different path.
“It’s showing people, you shouldn’t do this,” Jones Golden said. “It’s the wrong thing. You can end up hurt, dead, shot, somewhere you don’t want to be like jail. All that stuff.”
It’s not the end of the story for the KIA Boyz in the story though. Mabra continues through from the lights and sirens of a crash to the aftermath.
And what could await these teens for the trouble they caused.
“I think it’s messed up that y’all doing that,” Jones Golden said. “I think, if you do the right thing, you’ll be proud and stuff but if you do the bad things, you can end up in something very bad. I’m like, what’s the point?”
The stage play is a different approach to making change. Mabra uses art as an intervention tool. He says that teaching singing, dancing, acting, spoken word, or musical instruments, it can help connect with troubled youth. The team in KIA Boyz hope they can do the same.
“We’re hoping that we get some of the audience that will come out, bring their children out so they can see and spread that word,” Keyellia Morries, an actress said. “To say, hey, this needs to stop. There’s a lot of people getting hurt. There’s a lot of innocent people that don’t deserve any of this.”
Within the flyer for the play, Mabra created an acronym for KIA to stand for Karma In Action. When the play hits the stage Sunday Night, it will show just that.
The play will take place at Andrew Douglas Middle School at 3620 N 18th Street in Milwaukee. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Sunday and general admission tickets are $10. You can purchase them at the door or by calling 414-306-2107.
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