Posted on Nov 13, 2023
Teens wrote plays about gun violence — now they are being staged around the U.S.
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https://www.npr.org/2023/11/13/ [login to see] /gun-violence-teens-theater
American high school students, who were born after the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, are grimly accustomed to shooting drills and regular, if not daily, reports of gun violence on the news.
It was the 2018 school shooting at Parkland, Fla., that helped catalyze Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence. The yearly contest encourages young people to write plays addressing how ongoing shootings affect American lives. But founder Michael Cotey spent most of his professional life as a theater geek, not an activist.
"We're kind of always in a state of being bruised and battered," he told NPR during a run-through at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. "Sandy Hook happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. The Las Vegas shooting happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. Parkland happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. And the same thing happened each time. All of us got really upset and incensed about it. Then we went on to making plays and making theater and going about our normal life."
American high school students, who were born after the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, are grimly accustomed to shooting drills and regular, if not daily, reports of gun violence on the news.
It was the 2018 school shooting at Parkland, Fla., that helped catalyze Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence. The yearly contest encourages young people to write plays addressing how ongoing shootings affect American lives. But founder Michael Cotey spent most of his professional life as a theater geek, not an activist.
"We're kind of always in a state of being bruised and battered," he told NPR during a run-through at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. "Sandy Hook happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. The Las Vegas shooting happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. Parkland happened. I'm in rehearsal for a play. And the same thing happened each time. All of us got really upset and incensed about it. Then we went on to making plays and making theater and going about our normal life."
Teens wrote plays about gun violence — now they are being staged around the U.S.
Posted from npr.org
Theater
Firearms and Guns
Violence
Children
Schools
Posted 6 mo ago
Responses: 2
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The activist moms in Connect 2 Be The Change had not been theater people. But after the first reading, that changed. "One of them now works on the staff at South Bend Civic Theatre," Cotey says. "The second year, she's directing the plays with survivors in the community who she has cast because they align with the stories. Now this year, there's a march. They've got all these other partner organizations. They're working with the schools. It's become an important event for their community, and it's been a way that they can process and heal on this issue."
He pauses, fighting tears. "And when I made that one pager just out of frustration and hope that people would do this project, I had no idea that people would use it in that way."
Enough! still does not pay the bills for Michael Cotey. But his ambitions are growing. He would like to see the plays staged in every U.S. state, and at the White House, in front of the president."
..."The activist moms in Connect 2 Be The Change had not been theater people. But after the first reading, that changed. "One of them now works on the staff at South Bend Civic Theatre," Cotey says. "The second year, she's directing the plays with survivors in the community who she has cast because they align with the stories. Now this year, there's a march. They've got all these other partner organizations. They're working with the schools. It's become an important event for their community, and it's been a way that they can process and heal on this issue."
He pauses, fighting tears. "And when I made that one pager just out of frustration and hope that people would do this project, I had no idea that people would use it in that way."
Enough! still does not pay the bills for Michael Cotey. But his ambitions are growing. He would like to see the plays staged in every U.S. state, and at the White House, in front of the president."
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The last sentence in that quote is among the most critical. "Then we went on to making plays and making theater and going about our normal life." Are they encouraging the right and effective solution? Nope, not by a long shot.
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