The Rep and Metro Theatre Support Young Playwrights With #ENOUGH: PLAYS TO END GUN VIOLENCE

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Metro Theater Company will present #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence - a yearlong theatre initiative that encourages teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre, culminating in simultaneous staged readings across the country on Dec. 14.

"#ENOUGH brilliantly weaves together art and activism," said Julia Flood, Artistic Director for Metro Theater Company. "When we give young people a voice, we all learn. When we let young people lead, we all benefit. When we empower young people, we all win."

The public launch of #ENOUGH will be held on the eight-year anniversary of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, in which 20 young children and six adults were shot and killed at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school. Metro Theater Company and The Rep will host a pre-show discussion about the impact of gun violence with representatives from CureViolence St. Louis, the Institute for Public Health at Washington University and the St. Louis Public School System.

"Our children know far too much about gun violence," said The Rep's Augustin Family Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif. "#ENOUGH gives young people an outlet to express their fears and their hopes and to dream of a better future and take positive action to manifest it. The Rep is thrilled to amplify their voices and make these beautiful plays accessible to all communities."

The mission of #ENOUGH, a sponsored project of the non-profit arts service organization Fractured Atlas, is to promote playwriting as a tool for self-expression and social change and provide a platform for America's playwrights of tomorrow to discover and develop their voices today. Michael Cotey, #ENOUGH founder and producer, launched the project in 2019, inspired by the young people who took to the streets (and continue to do so) to manifest the change they wanted to see in the world.

#ENOUGH is making this collection of 10-minute plays available for free to any theatre, school, college or community organization to produce a reading on December 14. Educators can visit the #ENOUGH website to find a wealth of resources on involving their students in the 2020 readings, as well as creating and submitting plays for next year's festival.

Out of nearly 200 submissions from 23 states and 3 countries, 7 plays were chosen by a panel of award-winning playwrights including Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan and Karen Zacarías. More details on the young playwrights, including bios and headshots, can be found here.

#ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence is viewable at any time between December 14 and 20 for free on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand (BOD), which can be accessed from metroplays.org or repstl.org.

A pre-show discussion, hosted by Metro Theater Company and The Rep, will provide context for the plays to be performed and highlight some of St. Louis' vital service organizations and mental health professionals, including CureViolence St. Louis (a program of Employment Connection), the Institute for Public Health at Washington University and the St. Louis Public School System.

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