Natural Shocks by Lauren Gunderson at The Fern Shakespeare Company

The Fern Shakespeare Company at The Slate Theater is Participating in a National Campaign of Theater Activism Against Gun Violence led by playwright Lauren Gunderston by staging a reading of her new play Natural Shocks.

On April 20, participating theaters and artists across the nation will be doing readings of her new one-woman play NATURAL SHOCKS royalty-free. As of early April there are 80 readings in 38 states planned! That specific date marks the 19th anniversary of Columbine and the day of the National School Walkout. 

ALL PROCEEDS from The Fern Shakespeare Company's reading will go to Everytown for Gun Safety & The Northwest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian, and Gay Survivors of Abuse.

NATURAL SHOCKS is a new, unpublished play by Lauren Gunderson. If her name sounds familiar, it is because American Theatre Magazine calculated that she is the most produced playwright in America in the 2017-2018 season. (Last year, she came in second behind August Wilson.) Gunderson has a knack for writing plays that fit well in communities across America, and Natural Shocks is no exception, with the one character SHE described as “probably 40 years old, maybe younger, maybe older” and can be “any race, from any region, with any accent.”  

Natural Shocks is a classic Gunderson play: funny, inspired by Shakespeare (in this case, Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech), featuring a richly-drawn female character, and with an unexpected ending that will stay with you long after you leave the theater. It also happens to be completely of-the-moment, with a storyline all too familiar in 2018: one that is inescapably intertwined with gun violence. In fact, she finished the first draft of the script only two weeks before the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. So when that tragic shooting hit the news on Valentine’s Day, she knew she wanted to use the play to drive awareness, conversation and, ultimately, action.

Based on Hamlet’s “To be or not to be,” Natural Shocks is a 65-minute, one-woman tour-de-force play that bursts to life when we meet a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement. She overflows with quirks, stories, and a final secret that puts the reality of guns in American in your very lap. The play is part confessional, part stand up, and part reckoning. 

The Organizations:

Everytown for Gun Safety: Everytown is a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives. Website: everytown.org

The Northwest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian, and Gay Survivors of Abuse: The NW Network increases their communities’ ability to support the self-determination and safety of bisexual, transgender, lesbian and gay survivors of abuse through education, organizing and advocacy. They work within a broad liberation movement dedicated to social and economic justice, equality and respect for all people and the creation of loving, inclusive and accountable communities. Website: nwnetwork.org

For more details about the nationwide theater activism campaign, please visit https://www.naturalshocks.org/
#nationalschoolwalkout #NaturalShocksFernShakes #NaturalShocks #artmatters @LaLaTellsAStory  

Producers of the nationwide event are Leah Hamos, theatrical agent at The Gersh Agency, Corinne Hayoun, Head of the NY office of MANAGE-MENT, and Christina Wallace, Tech entrepreneur, arts producer, and political organizer.