7 Stages, Alliance stage plays on gun violence written by young playwrights

As of the end of October 2023, the United States has experienced at least 565 mass shootings this year — nearly twice the number of days. But that’s probably something you already knew. Anyone who has watched the news or scrolled through social media has probably come across a similar statistic on gun violence.

It is the role of theater to take cultural topics like this and put them into our body, impressing them upon us in a more visceral way. That is the goal of Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence. The touring collection of short plays will be performed at 7 Stages on November 4 and at the Alliance on November 6. 

Launched in 2019 shortly after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the project seeks to give young people who are most heavily affected by gun violence a platform to voice their experiences. “By then I had already witnessed a powerful youth movement emerge shortly after the senseless shooting in Parkland, Florida, the year prior,” says company founder Michael Cotey. “Young people took to the streets [and continue to do so] to manifest the change they wanted to see in the world, while policymakers continuously failed to rise to the challenge.”

In the spring of 2023, a nationwide call was put out for playwrights between the ages of 13 and 19. They were encouraged to submit works that gave voice to their experiences with gun violence — works showing that the culture of gun violence we have created is not normal.

These plays come at the issue from a variety of angles. One follows three 911 operators trying to guide someone to safety during a shooting. One features two parents packing up their child’s things in the aftermath. One depicts a teen’s desperate attempts to keep her brother from being shot by the police. One satirizes the inane policy decisions made by the school administration in their Sisyphean efforts to prevent school shootings. All highlight the crystalline truth that lies at the center of this project: It is long past time for something to be done.

Of course, activist theater is of no use if it does not spark conversation. Following the reading, each location will hold a discussion regarding the topics addressed in the play, creating a forum for audience members to process and reflect. Informational materials will also be provided by community partners fighting for gun control in Georgia.

The two readings, one at 7 Stages and one at the Alliance, are produced and cast separately, but both are produced by artists passionate about the subject matter. Sharmaine Brown, founder and CEO of Jared’s Heart of Success, will produce the reading at 7 Stages. Brown sat on the panel for one of the play’s previous readings and this year sought to involve her organization. Brown, who lost her son Jared to gun violence in 2015, will be joined by several others who have lost family members under similar circumstances.

While this is the first year the show will be staged at 7 Stages, it’s the third year at the Alliance, where it will be directed by Maya Lawrence, a resident artist and Allyship program director at the Alliance. Lawrence was previously one of the Alliance’s Spelman leadership fellows and works closely with the Teen Ensemble that will be performing the show. She will also be working with the current roster of Spelman fellows who will produce the show. Like 7 Stages, the Alliance will be holding a talk back following the reading.

Samantha Provenzano, another resident artist and teen programs manager at the Alliance, highlights the importance of the fact that the show centers young voices. Provenzano directed the Alliance’s first production of Enough! and is helping produce this year’s reading. She points to the discussions that arise when directing young actors in the play, as the world they are growing up in differs so much from the one in which she grew up.

This will mark the third year that Enough! has been produced, each time commissioning new play lineups by different playwrights. Some deal with the traumatic aftermath of gun violence, while others explore what it is like to live in a community that is constantly under threat of being victimized. These past scripts are available for purchase or licensing through Playscripts. Over the years, the selection panel for Enough! has consisted of such well-known playwrights as David Henry Hwang, Lauren Gunderson and Naomi Iizuka. 

By allowing young artists the space to tell these stories based on their real experiences, Enough! puts the lived realities of gun violence front and center in a way that no statistic can. Gunderson says it best in the preface to the 2020 published version of the play: “America’s flood of gun violence isn’t about statistics but about people. Lives, families, dreams and hopes cut short brutally, unnecessarily, preventably. Gun violence is about voices silenced, which makes the young voices in this collection all the more potent. They are speaking, dreaming, creating for so many who can’t.”

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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based writer, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has worked with theaters such as the Alliance, Actor’s Express, Out Front Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and the University of Houston, where he earned his master’s.