BWW Previews: TONIGHT, THINKTANK THEATRE DEBUTS #ENOUGH, PLAYS BY YOUTH ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE at Stageworks Theatre

It's been twenty-three years since twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold picked up their automatic weapons and murdered 12 students and one teacher in the Columbine Massacre. At the time, the Columbine shooting was the deadliest in U.S. history.

It has since been eclipsed by unimaginable tragedy.

The Washington Post said that more than 292,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. In the two decades following the Columbine shooting, the U.S. has experienced hundreds of smaller-scale attacks in every state and 11 mass school shootings.

Tonight, a nation of theater communities will join as one to present #Enough, a collection of plays written by youth playwrights as a part of this youth-led movement to end gun violence.

At Stageworks at 7:30 PM, ThinkTank Theatre presents a staged reading of these powerful, poignant plays. Actors Kaylee Tupper Miller, Cranstan Cumberbatch, Shelby Ronea, Jadon Milne, Lance Felton, Marie-Claude Trembley, Noah Perez, and Haley Janeda will be joined on stage by members of ThinkTank YAE.

• Southside Summer by McKennzie Boyd - A young mother, her son, and her daughter share their experience of living on the southside of Chicago, where guns don't discriminate based on how young or old you are, but it's the color of your skin that can change which way the gun faces.
• Allegiance by Arianna Brumfield - Growing up in a community where opportunities are scarce, Nehemiah feels burdened with the responsibility of rebuilding his fractured family. When tragedy rips a hole in his world, he must decide whether to fulfill that responsibility or seek revenge and which life he was destined to live.
• Rehearsal by Willa Colleary - Four students at an elite private school and their cult-of-personality history teacher must recount how and why they began the weekly ritual of obsessively performing an archetypal school shooting.
• It's Okay by Anya Jiménez - In an unknown dreamscape, seemingly without time, a grieving mother grapples with her reality following the mass shooting at her daughter's elementary school.
• Salted Lemonade by Taylor Lafayette - Worrying over your 18-year-old son's well-being can sometimes feel like a full-time job for Lisa, a widowed mother who lost her husband to gun violence. But when Jamal doesn't text her, it may be that the day she's feared ever since her husband died has finally arrived.
• In My Sights by Tain Leonard-Peck - Told from the gun's perspective, IN MY SIGHTS follows the 'life' of a gun, from its creation and adoption by a loving couple to its theft and use in a shooting, exploring how even well-intentioned gun owners can find their weapons embroiled in violent crime.
• Undo, Redo by Cameron Thiesing - No. Stop. Like this. Okay, do it again. Giving directions to her past self and her friend Rachel as if the director of a play, Caroline desperately tries to change the past as she is forced to come to terms with what really happened at school.
• Write Their Wrongs by Wyn Alyse Thomas - After surviving a shooting in their high school, four writers get together to try to write a piece that will inspire change in the nation's gun legislation.

"On April 20th, 1999, I was a senior in high school. I remember the TVs in our classrooms being turned on and we watched the Columbine incident happening in real-time. For 17-year-old me, it felt so surreal. For 40-year-old me, it's become far too common. It's a hard topic to handle gracefully within the realm of theatre. I found the #Enough Plays Project at the annual TYA USA virtual meeting. It was right on mission for ThinkTank, so I knew we had to get involved. And now, here we are," said artistic director Georgia Mallory Guy. "I am planning for this to be a yearly event that we partake in which will also involve educational programming for young writers in our area. Perhaps one of our young playwrights from the Tampa Bay area will be featured in next year's national play selection."

The staged reading of #ENOUGH is at Stageworks Theatre, 1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. #ENOUGH contains some adult themes and mature language, recommended for ages 10+. Following the reading will be a community conversation. Tickets are pay-what-you-can. Learn more and register at https://www.thinktanktya.org/special-events-enough https://www.enoughplays.com

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