Improv sets the stage for young consumers

About 200 seventh- and eighth-graders are shushed into a vast auditorium and told to settle down, sit up straight and listen. They are being given an opportunity, Barbara Chanaiwa, the principal of Charles R. Drew Middle School in South Los Angeles, tells them. One false move and they'll be pulled out of the auditorium and be back in class in a heartbeat.

Two young improv actors stand onstage in black T-shirts and take turns explaining -- in English and Spanish -- that they'll be talking about saving, investing, buying on credit and setting financial priorities.

They'll take suggestions from the students that will be incorporated into the show. Nothing profane, the actors warn. The audience is silent.

Then the show starts.

"I need a volunteer!" shouts actress Elia Saldana.

A student named Maria bounds onstage and is asked to provide some information about herself, including the name of her best friend, Katya.

"What does Katya do?" asks actor Marques Maben.

"She talks," Maria says to giggles from the crowd. "She talks a lot."

Seconds later, Saldana, playing Maria, emerges from backstage to act out "A Day in the Life of Maria," with the real Maria sitting in the background.

Maben, dressed in a blond wig and a bathrobe, sashays onstage as Maria's mother to give "Maria" her $15 weekly allowance. The audience roars at his slapstick performance and incongruous outfit. But the message his character delivers is a serious one: Maria ought to save some of her money for a rainy day or a future goal.

"I'm just sayin'!" "Mom" Maben squeals to big laughs. "I'm just sayin'!"

"Maria" skips across the stage to buy a CD from Maben, who is now a dippy, dreadlocked clerk. Still, the sale isn't complete before he asks, "Aren't you going to save some of that money?"

Seconds later, he's jumping onstage as Katya, who has interrupted her incessant talking to repay a $5 debt to Maria. When Maria makes plans to immediately spend the $5, Katya goes silent, then asks, "Umm, Maria, aren't you going to save some of that?"

By the time Maria spends her last dime on lunch, the audience can chime in for the familiar refrain -- "Aren't you going to save some of that?" -- now spouted by Maben as a cafeteria worker.

No one is surprised when the thing that Maria wants most in the world -- tickets to a concert by her favorite artist -- is being sold at an exceptionally low price in a one-time, limited offer. But Maria is out of cash and out of luck.