Making it Write: James DeVita Authors Change
Sarah Fortin

When actor and author James DeVita first came across Sophie Scholl’s name, he had no idea she would change his life.

“I was doing a one-man show, the first thing I ever wrote. A little play called 'Waiting for Vern,'” DeVita recalled as he talked about the first time he came across a blurb about Sophie Scholl, the young woman who would inspire him to write both a play and a book. She was such a powerful influence on his life that he even named his daughter Sophie.

Sophie Scholl helped form one of the first resistance movements in Nazi Germany; Scholl and her peers called it The White Rose, the same name DeVita used for the resistance group in his second fictional book "The Silenced."

DeVita has long been captured by Sophie’s story. He first wrote about her in his play "The Rose of Treason. "He thought the play would satisfy his interest with Sophie and the White Rose resistance. However, long after finishing his play, he was still thinking about the young woman and her fate. When asked about "The Silenced," DeVita confessed he wanted “to talk a lot more about Sophie Scholl and The White Rose” than about his book.

He started writing the book in 1999, “before some of the drastic changes started to happen,” he said, referring to the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

One of the first things a reader will notice in the opening chapters of "The Silenced" are the political implications found throughout the book.

“My editors didn’t comment on the political undertones, which was one of the things I was nervous about,” DeVita admitted.

As rampant as political issues appear to be in his book, DeVita said he wasn’t always politically conscious. Only 10 years ago he was angry, jaded and believed his vote didn’t matter. A few years in Spring Green, though, and all that changed.

“I fell in love with the state as soon as I got here,” the Long Island native said of his move to Wisconsin in 1984. He arrived not knowing what to expect, but it was here DeVita decided to build his acting career, write and form a family.

After a few years of working on fishing boats off the east coast and going to school sporadically, DeVita finally decided to pursue his acting degree at UW-Milwaukee. With his knowledge about Wisconsin mostly acquired from the TV show “Laverne and Shirley,” DeVita had no idea of what lay ahead of him. He was pleasantly surprised to find an active art scene in Milwaukee.

DeVita held various acting jobs in Milwaukee for about five years after graduating. He also traveled around the world performing in Australia, Japan and Germany.

“I could go back to New York and look for a job or stay and work,” he said about his decision to stay in Milwaukee. In addition, he knew a number of fellow actors in the area and found himself coming back to Wisconsin quite often. He finally decided to settle down in Spring Green with the American Players Theatre. Little did he know in 1984 that more than 20 years later he would have such strong roots in the state.

DeVita has been a member of the APT for 13 years. One of the things DeVita enjoys the most about having set his acting roots in Wisconsin is the familiar audience.
 
“Kids who watched me perform in Milwaukee when they were eight are now watching me perform at the APT,” said DeVita, commenting on Wisconsin’s intimate art scene.

The APT’s outdoor setting allows for a unique theater experience. DeVita believes that “the APT has the heartiest audience” and that “the outside, intimate setting is what keeps audiences coming back.”

“You won’t be rich and famous” working for the APT, DeVita said. However, he mentioned that it allows actors to lead a somewhat normal life, to have a family and live comfortably—all in a nice area.

The APT places a lot of weight on language and storytelling. The actors' jobs when they are on stage is to communicate an understanding of the play to the audience. As DeVita put it, “If Farmer Joe doesn’t understand, it is the actor’s fault, not Joe’s or Shakespeare’s.”

DeVita believes the APT and its members successfully draw audiences because they are “telling a story really clearly. And people like being told a good story.”

DeVita's schedule, in which he acts for six months of the year and is free to take other acting jobs or write for the remainder, allows him the necessary time to work on his writing. A self-described “closet writer” at the beginning of his career, DeVita has published more than 16 plays for young adults, including a slightly controversial piece on youth violence, and his own one-man show.

His first book was a science fiction novel—a far cry from his recently published book "The Silenced," which carries a heavy message for DeVita’s young adult readers.

DeVita wrote "The Silenced" in part to show young adults that they can accomplish anything; that they can stand up for themselves.

Although Sophie Scholl was sentenced to death, Marena, DeVita’s main character in "The Silenced," survives. He did this to show young adults that there is hope, that they can stand up for what they believe is right and have a positive outcome.

DeVita hopes young adults will take an active role in societal issues after reading the book.
 
“There are issues that will not be solved in my lifetime,” he said. But he hopes his book will at least motivate change in the near future, for the younger generation.

“A lot of people think I’m writing about what happened in our country and the world in the last six, seven years," he said. "What really is frightening is I wrote about something that happened 60 years ago or more. And that we’re drawing parallels to that, I think is scary.”

These are strong words coming from someone who not too long ago was apathetic about politics. Scholl’s activism deeply inspired DeVita.

“Sophie Scholl shamed me," DeVita said. "I learned from her that I can’t complain if I don’t take action."
 
And this is exactly what he preaches to his young readers.

When DeVita speaks about "The Silenced" at festivals and meetings, he says the audience usually encourages him to talk about the politics and theories behind the book. Above all, one of the points he vocalizes is that the book does not directly refer to modern issues. Nevertheless, DeVita said the book is "ripe with parallels to many modern-day political issues."

Although DeVita was not always politically in-tune, Wisconsin and Scholl helped shape this part of his life. He admits that Spring Green played a role in his political awakening.
 
“In my experience, people here [in Wisconsin] are much more politically involved than in Long Island,” DeVita said on seeing his neighbors travel all around for protests and political activism.

He readily admitted that Wisconsin residents' political activism and consciousness motivated him to become more aware. Wisconsin provided DeVita with a career in acting as well as in literature. It turned his political apathy around. And it now allows him to touch people’s lives by including his book in schools' curricula focusing on Nazi Germany.

A small tribute to Scholl’s life on DeVita’s behalf.