LEGGO MY EGO : Newest Stop-Gap Production Counsels Kids to Break Free FromBonds of Low Self-Esteem

For 13 years, Stop-Gap theater troupe has produced plays to help people cope with drug addiction, child abuse, AIDS, racism, rape and other issues that touch the lives of many. Now the company has come up with a topic that perhaps everyone will relate to: Low self-esteem.

“The Miracle of Me” is about Auggie (, a young woman who takes a trip on a rickety timemachine back to childhood, where she attempts to recover the self-esteem she sorely lacks as an adult.

The 15-minute play, to be staged as drama therapy in elementary schools, will have its formal debut Monday at South Coast Repertory. Also on the program will be Stop-Gap’s other new school production, “So There I Was . . .”--about teen pregnancy, and excerpts from older plays the Santa Ana-based troupe is taking into Orange and Los Angeles County classrooms this year.

As a child once again, Auggie must overcome the Self-Esteem Chewer Upper, played by playwright Robert Knapp, who represents her internalized voice of self-doubt and condemnation. She grapples with perfectionism, feelings of inferiority, and media messages that insist you’ve got to be tanned and beautiful to be complete.

Knapp said he hopes schoolchildren will draw their own conclusions and insights from the play. (While open to the public, the SCR event is not meant for children but to acquaint educators, parents, health-care professionals and others with Stop-Gap touring plays.) But he aims to emphasize one key point.

“You don’t have to get your self-esteem out of being the biggest star or anything like that; you have it in you to begin with,” said Knapp, Stop-Gap’s education director. “That’s a little difficult to believe, but we all have a specialness inside.”

The play will also stress how self-esteem affects decision-making. “If you have strong self-esteem, you’ll make decisions that are good for you,” Knapp said. The Self-Esteem Chewer Upper, alias the “equal opportunity ego destroyer,” tempts Auggie to join a gang for friends or take drugs to feel better. Her own inner resources and her friend Betty help her make the right choices.

“It takes work to convince yourself you’re OK and deserve to feel good about yourself, but as a human being, you have inherent worth and it’s worth fighting for--that’s Betty’s message,” Knapp said.

Stop-Gap actors, who conduct drama-therapy workshops in community centers and corporations as well as in schools, will involve students in a discussion of the play, posing such questions as what should Auggie do if she has a low self-esteem relapse, or how to find the courage to believe in oneself during trying times, Knapp said.

“The experience is much more powerful (for the students) when they give us ideas, rather than our imposing ideas on them.”

What: “The Miracle of Me” and other plays for schoolchildren presented by Stop-Gap theater troupe.

When: Monday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m.

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to Bristol Avenue exit north. Bristol to Town Center Drive.

Wherewithal: Admission is free.

Where to call: (714) 648-0135.