{"id":27899,"date":"2020-02-01T22:01:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T03:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=27899"},"modified":"2020-02-01T22:02:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T03:02:03","slug":"bang-bang-youre-dead-a-play-about-gun-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/art\/2020\/02\/01\/bang-bang-youre-dead-a-play-about-gun-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Bang Bang You\u2019re Dead: A Play About Gun Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\tSinclair\u2019s Theater Department will be performing \u201cBang Bang You\u2019re Dead\u201d on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.; a play about the 1998 Thurston High School shooting that was originally performed by the Thurston High School\u2019s drama department a year after the shooting, which took the lives of two classmates and injured 25 others, as well as the gunman, Kip Kinkel\u2019s, parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe play has been performed three previous times by the Sinclair Theater Department and this year\u2019s show will mark the fourth. This year\u2019s show will be close to the six month anniversary of the Oregon District shooting in downtown Dayton and the two-year anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which took place in Parkland, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tShortly after the Parkland shooting in 2018, the students in Sinclair\u2019s theater department wanted to do something so they decided to work on \u201cBang Bang, You\u2019re Dead\u201d and present it on the one month anniversary of the Parkland shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe second showing, April 20, 2018, happened to be National School Walkout Day, an event in response to the Parkland shooting set on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting. The performers participated in the walkout and then put on the play afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe third performance was on Feb. 14, 2019, the one year anniversary of the Parkland shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The cast of ‘Bang Bang, You’re Dead,’ showing at the Black Box Theater Thursday, Feb. 6 at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cCenters for learning should be leading these discussions,\u201d said Gina Neuerer, a professor and chair of Sinclair\u2019s Theater Department. \u201cNot just starting in high school and college. We need to be listening to what our children have to say and empowering them to ask questions and have conversations around things like gun violence and sexual assault, and live theatre is an excellent way to bring this awareness and start these conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe play was written by William Mastrosimone, with assistance from Michael Fisher, Director of the Thurston High School Drama Department in Springfield, Oregon. Mastrosimone is an American playwright from Trenton, New Jersey who wrote the play in the wake of three school shootings; the Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon on May 21, 1998, Heat High School<\/a> in Paducah, Kentucky on December 4, 1997, and Westside Middle School<\/a> in Jonesboro, Arkansas on March 23, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe play was at one time able to be downloaded off the internet and has quite often been performed by high schools ever since. Of the play, Mastrosimone, intended it to be able to be performed in \u201cany modest playing areas\u201d and it required no sets, nor costumes as the actors could typically dress in contemporary clothing. It was, in theory, intended to be an easy play to perform for high schools as a way to talk about the big, terrifying subject of school shootings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cIt is extremely important to be honest about the events around us, lest history repeats itself due to ignorance,\u201d said Austin Vega, an assistant director for the play. \u201cThe arts have to remain honest because I think the arts have a responsibility of sorts to give a voice to the voiceless and speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. With \u2018Bang, Bang, You\u2019re Dead\u2019 the playwright is allowing us to hear the perspective of victims of (school) gun violence and hear the impact on their and the family lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tAccording to Mastrosimone, the play was inspired by an event at his son\u2019s school, in which a student had written a violent diatribe on a school chalkboard, inferring he intended to kill his classmates and the teacher, and sought to seek out the abstruse nature of such acts of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cI believe that it is important for schools to put on performances dealing with rough topics, especially the topics that are relevant today,\u201d said Christopher Koehler, theater major and one of the performers in the play. \u201cWith being a part of this production, in particular, it really opened my eyes to not only the effects of gun violence but how often shootings occur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a scary thought, but if we just act like nothing like these events happen,\u201d continued Koehler. \u201cThen it’s just swept under the rug and it won’t be stopped. Spreading awareness and showing to people, especially young adults who are so influential, will help them realize not only that these events can happen, but also how to prevent them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe shows will be free admission, as was the original intent as a way for the play to be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel if any theater is free, it’s worth watching,\u201d said Koehler. \u201cBut particularly with this play, it is important due to the most recent history of this city. The play at its core has a lot of shock value, but it is really interesting in how it shows signs of violence, as a student goes from your average everyday student then slipping down a path that unfortunately leads to him taking the lives of his fellow students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The cast of ‘Bang Bang, You’re Dead’. From left to right: Darion Roberts, Devontae Wheaton, Becca Shelley, Katelyn Pennington, Christopher Koehler, Sabrina Smith, Kiarra Matos, Leia Gaddis, Raushawn Parker, Robert Shutts <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the FBI, there have been 42 \u201cactive shooter\u201d incidents between 2000 and 2018, and along with tornado and fire drills, many schools in the U.S. now practice \u201cactive shooter\u201d drills as a way to prepare for such instances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 417 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-profit that tracks mass shootings, thirty-one of which were mass murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair\u2019s Theater Department has tackled a bevy of difficult topics this year, with shows like \u201cRefugees\u201d which will be showing in early April at the Black Box Theater and \u201cSlut\u201d which played back in mid-November also at the Black Box Theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSinclair Theatre & Dance has been doing these type of plays for many years,\u201d Neuerer said. \u201cSometimes as part of our regular season, but often we add in a production as an immediate reaction to local and national events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important as part of their education, that Theatre Majors learn that they can use their art for activism and to reach their community in a unique way,\u201d said Neuerer. \u201cAnd it is an integral part of the mission of Sinclair Music, Theatre & Dance to provide our community with accessible, quality performing arts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Foltz
<\/strong>Executive Editor
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sinclair\u2019s Theater Department will be performing \u201cBang Bang You\u2019re Dead\u201d on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.; a play about the 1998 Thurston High School shooting that was originally performed by the Thurston High School\u2019s drama department a year after the shooting, which took the lives of two classmates and injured 25 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":27900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2104,2122,2103],"tags":[3927,3928,3155,2622,3859,2416,3926],"class_list":["post-27899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-performing-arts","category-art","tag-columbine","tag-national-school-walk-out","tag-parkland-shooting","tag-school-shootings","tag-sinclair-theater","tag-stoneman-douglas-high-school","tag-thurston-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BangBangPosterTemp20.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-7fZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27907,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions\/27907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}