https://www.npr.org/2023/11/13/1212098799/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."
While not personally touched by gun violence, Cotey found himself wondering,
"What could we do? Like, what could theater do that we haven't done already?
What play is out there that we could rally around?"'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
