Perpich News
Kevin Kjonaas with Avenues for Youth Visits with Theater and Musical Theater Students to Discuss Youth Homelessness
January 22, 2025
Perpich Theater and Musical Theater students welcomed special guest, Kevin Kjonaas with Avenues for Youth, to their classroom on Wednesday, January 22nd. Kevin is Associate Director of Development & Communications for Avenues and was invited to speak on youth homelessness. That theme is being explored by Perpich Theater and Musical Theater students as they are in rehearsals for “Runaways”, a musical about the lives of children who run away from home and live on the city streets. The Perpich production of “Runaways” will be March 13-15, 2025.

Kevin Kjonaas with Avenues for Youth speaks with Perpich Theater and Musical Theater students.
“I had a really wonderful experience while visiting Perpich Center for Arts Education,” said Kjonaas. “Both faculty and staff provided a welcoming environment. I came to speak on behalf of Avenues for Youth, a shelter and housing program for youth experiencing homelessness. Tory Peterson’s students, getting prepared for the play “Runaways”, were prepared, serious, and thoroughly engaged in our conversation about root causes of youth homelessness and community resources that are available. They asked thoughtful questions and demonstrated an impressive level of seriousness, not only for the roles they will play, but because they genuinely care about their peers experiencing homelessness and the trauma that comes with it. Myself and others from Avenues are excited to attend this play and applaud the wider Perpich community for fostering this incredible environment.”
Tory Peterson, Theater Instructor, invited Kevin to speak with the students so that they may understand the plight of teen unhoused individuals and LGBTQI+ teen unhoused communities. “It’s interesting to see the services available to teens today that were not available to teens back in 1979 when the play ‘Runaways’ takes place,” said Peterson. “I think hearing about real life situations and the reminder that overcoming teen homelessness is a journey that requires time [is important]. Kevin did an awesome job of communicating the plight of unhoused teens to the students.” There are 5,000 teens that are unhoused every night in Minnesota and there are only rooms to house 15% of those teens. “The epidemic is real.”
Avenues for Youth partners with youth experiencing homelessness to achieve their dreams. For 30 years, Avenues has supported youth ages 16-24 in Hennepin County. Whether a young person needs a place to stay for just one night, or a year and a half, Avenues partners with youth to find their path out of homelessness. They do that by providing a stable home, building trusting relationships, and supporting the youth’s education, career, health and wellness, and housing goals.
“Runaways” is a musical which was written, composed, choreographed, and directed by Elizabeth Swados, about the lives of children who run away from home and live on the city streets. The characters were taken from workshops conducted by Swados with real-life runaways in the late 1970s. Swados looked for the children who would be in the musical in various places in New York City, such as a community center. She did research for her project as she gathered the cast, and some in the cast were actual runaways. The show was done in a series of songs, monologues, scenes, poems, and dances. The musical premiered off-Broadway on February 21, 1978, at the Public Theater Cabaret as presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival. It moved to Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on May 13, 1978, and closed on December 31, 1978, after 12 previews and 274 performances.