Lope de Vega, the great Baroque playwright, said, "A play is three planks, two actors, and a passion." What If... uses two actors and a moderator, and their passion creates just the essential experience of drama that Lope de Vega had in mind.

If you haven't seen or heard of this group, there's a good reason for your ignorance: they don't perform in public. Instead they work in prison and school educational programs, playing scenes that dramatize such daunting social issues as drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and date rape. But the other ambitions of What If... go further, for it involves the audience verbally. Their process completes a circle of interaction between stage and viewers.

In a recent performance, Diane Kondrat, the group's co-founder, moderated a scene played by Troy Trinkle and Mollie Dustin. The audience for this after-school activity were teenagers 12-14. Diane introduced the show with her customary energetic intelligence. Explaining their aim, she said, "how much you know and how you behave have little relation to each other. So instead of talking to your head, we're going to talk to your heart."

Troy and Mollie enacted a four-minute scene, "The Morning After," about a young couple dealing with their feelings after a party where they had an ambiguous sexual encounter. Diane stopped the scene when its implications became discussable, asking the audience questions about what is happening. The group responded with a variety of intelligent reactions: Did they actually have sex? Was she really "all over him,' as the guy claimed? What did she want? Some viewers thought she seemed confused, and wondered why. Mollie stayed in character, explaining that her drinking meant she couldn't always remember what had happened to her; Diane asked the audience what she could do about that problem. All seemed to agree that the couple needed to talk honestly about the inherent dangers in their relating sexually.

But this dialogue went beyond exploring character, motive and action. Since the pair had unprotected intercourse, the subject of condoms and HIV/AIDS surfaced quickly. Without preaching any gospel, Diane helped these kids to state their own level of awareness about basic facts. Soon they were affirming that anyone sexually active needs HIV testing - especially those with multiple partners. I sensed that nothing else could convey this tough message as effectively as this interactive experience of a starkly personal drama.

Two more scenes, "Nobody's Home" and "HIV Family," explored two other pairs' reactions to impending sexual relations and the revelation that a family member has died of AIDS. Because the actors immediately developed believable characters caught in familiar conflicts, the kids could relate readily to them. Their reactions ranged from "He needs to think about using force with her" to "She should stop protecting him."

The performance gained immediacy from the actors' flexibility, as they improvised their characters' reactions to random questions. Later they told me this experience expanded not only their acting skills, but also their own understanding of how people deal with the issues. Aha! I thought, this kind of theater educates both audience and actors.

"And how do prisoners react?" I asked. "Immediately!" responded Diane. "Many of these people have suffered greatly; they can spot a phony a mile away. So the demand for truthfulness is enormous. Our level of emotional involvement and risk-taking is also high. We must follow impulses quickly, so the audience becomes an integral part of the theatrical process." Mollie specified prisoners' reactions. "Whole cell blocks have signed up for HIV testing after a performance." Diane specified how such responses reflect the basically educational aspect of what some perceive as just entertainment.

"Theater has always worked as a teaching tool. It teaches through the heart, not the head." Yup, I thought, here is Aristotle's pity and fear.

"So where does this magic come from?" I asked. "What models do you follow?" Troy noted that Canadian interactive theater has flourished for 20 years. "Now it's gaining acceptance in our social service agencies and corporations as an exciting training tool," added Diane.

Finally I posed perhaps the crucial question: "Why do you do this?" Troy said, "As an actor I enjoy the process. It started as just a fun performance, but soon I realized it also provided an effective service for kids who would otherwise stay pretty ignorant. That's quite a high for an actor." Diane added, "Two things: first, we are making a theater here. In this small space, with no 'production values,' we create many people's first and only experience of live performance. Secondly, with the AIDS material we are literally saving lives."

But not only the actors think they're successful; a letter supporting one of their grant applications shows their remarkable effect. The Education Coordinator of the Bloomington Juvenile Treatment Center wrote, "As a seasoned school services administrator for an at-risk population, I know that What If... provides information unparalleled in content accuracy, quality, timeliness, and portrayal. Most impressive is their dedication to preparing meticulously the message they so persuasively convey."