Secrets of Columbine at The Producer's Club

DOCUMENTARY PLAY, "SECRETS OF COLUMBINE," RETURNS TO OFF-BROADWAY
AROUND 16 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE SCHOOL SHOOTING THAT CHANGED AMERICA

Play Features Verbatim Interviews with survivors of the tragedy who knew both victims and killers,
also features new material exploring current challenges for teens like cyber-bullying.

The Children’s Acting Academy engages audiences in one of the turning points in American life with "Secrets of Columbine" at the Producer's Club, 358 West 44th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in New York City, April 24-26. Evening performances are at 8pm and there is a Saturday matinee at 3pm, and Sunday matinee at 2pm. (All performances followed by post-performance discussion). When on April 20th, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold brought guns and bombs to Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering over twelve students, one teacher, and then killing themselves, they left the nation wondering, “Why?” They had every advantage: youth, wealth, education. In attempting to answer this question, playwright, Lance Laytner felt "the theater may be able to bring the situation to light in a way that news reporting could not."
Laytner, a journalist himself, as well as a dramatist trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, combines his crafts in a documentary theatre piece in the tradition of Anna Deavere Smith, Emily Mann, and Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project. Directed by Mimi Stuart and performed by a group of actors culled from the New York area, the result is a multimedia production combining a documentary script based on verbatim interviews, experimental theatre techniques, and accompanying impressionistic music and film clips. "Secrets of Columbine" allows the audience to understand some of the ways the people of Littleton processed this tragedy. As one character, Jeremiah Quinonez says to some of the surviving kids, "this will be a chance to explain to them where you were…and..spiritually…how that was a challenge for you and how spiritually you handled it." In "Secrets of Columbine," we hear from the victims, the voyeurs, the critics, the sympathizers, and begin to discern a wider web of culpability that expands beyond Littleton to our own families, communities, and our society at large.

The predictions of the people of Littleton, Colorado that more events like the Columbine shooting are likely to happen has proven tragically prophetic. A school shooting in North Carolina planned by a trouble team to coincide with the April 20th 2015 16 year anniversary of the Columbine shooting was narrowly avoided. The root causes of school violence is an issue with which our nation still grapples. The voices of the real people of Littleton who struggled with how their community might have stopped the shootings has enduring value in answering how to prevent similar tragedies.
Tickets are $22.00 and can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1438488

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WHAT: "Secrets of Columbine"

WHERE: The Producer's Club
358 West 44th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues
New York, NY 10036

WHEN: Friday, April 24th at 8pm
Saturday, April 25th at 3pm
Saturday, April 25th at 8pm
Sunday, April 26th at 2pm
Sunday, April 26th at 8pm

Post-performance discussions will follow all performances