The Alliance Theatre is proud to announce its participation in the Nationwide Reading of ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence on November 6, 2023, in the Selig Family Black Box Theatre. The Alliance will join more than 50 other communities around the United States to perform this year’s winning play selections as art, activism, and teen voices unite on stage in a vital evening of theater addressing gun violence in our community. Admission is free.
ENOUGH! calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country. They received 244 submissions from 36 states this past spring when they called on teens to write 10-minute plays on gun violence. This year’s plays were selected by nationally recognized dramatists Idris Goodwin, Lauren Gunderson, Zora Howard, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Octavio Solis, and Lloyd Suh.
“These plays provide powerful insight into the perspective of a generation where the threat of gun violence has become ubiquitous with going to school growing up,” says ENOUGH! creator Michael Cotey, “Performing them across the country exactly a year from the next presidential election is an urgent reminder that gun violence remains a vital issue for many young voters coming of age next November.”
The Alliance Theatre’s Teen Ensemble will stage the readings comprised of six new 10-minute plays by teen writers. The plays address the many angles and lenses through which we see gun violence at work in America: in classrooms, in neighborhoods, and in families.
“This year victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting would be applying to colleges across this country, preparing to don their caps and gowns like our Teen Ensemble members. We are reminded of the potential extinguished too soon,” said Alliance Theatre ENOUGH! Director & Allyship Program Director Maya Lawrence. “This initiative stands as a poetic call to action that resonates far beyond the walls of any classroom. Through the emotive medium of theater, we aim to author a new narrative, to foster a safer, more compassionate world where no more lives are lost to gun violence, where every graduate walks the stage, their future unmarred by tragedy.”
All are welcome to attend. Patrons are advised that the subject matter includes discussions – but not graphic depictions – of many forms of gun violence, including school shootings, officer-involved shootings, suicide, and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community.
“In the face of adversity, we find strength; in remembrance, we find purpose,” added Lawrence. “As we remember the names of countless victims across communities, circumstances, time, and space, this is our commitment to creating a future where gun violence is but a distant memory. It is in their honor and memory that we unite, using the power of art, empathy, and action to combat the pervasive issue of gun violence in our society.”
Find more information about the Alliance's November 6 reading of ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence.
To learn more about ENOUGH! and the Nationwide Reading, visit enoughplays.com/reading.
