June 16, 2023 • 34 mins
How can theater become a powerful tool for activism, particularly in the fight against gun violence? Join us as we discuss this topic with our special guest, Michael Cotey, a theater director and the Artistic Director of ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence. Inspired by young people, their experiences with gun violence, and their fight for change, we explore Michael's journey of developing the project and how theater can make space for marginalized groups that often don’t have a place in mainstream American theater.
Michael shares with us the process behind ENOUGH!, where youth playwrights create stories that explore gun violence and its many impacts. We discuss the importance of engaging in deeper conversations and promoting community action through these performances, becoming an effective tool for inspiring change.
You can access a reading of the plays here, as well as join a nationwide reading.
Further reading:
Young playwrights use the theater to confront the trauma of gun violence (PBS NewsHour)
ENOUGH! Seeks Short Anti-Gun Violence Plays From Teens (American Theatre)
How Theater Is Inspiring Social Justice for the Next Generation (Backstage)
Ghost Gun confronts class and race (Chicago Reader)
For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.
Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.
Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the legal disclaimer, where I tell you
that the views, thoughts andopinion shared on this podcast
belong solely to our guests andhosts and not necessarily Brady
or Brady's affiliates.
Please note this podcastcontains discussions of violence
that some people may finddisturbing.
It's okay, we find itdisturbing too.
Hey, everybody, welcome back toanother episode of Red, blue
(00:44):
and Brady.
I'm one of your hosts, jj, andwe're coming at you with episode
three and, i'm sure, yoursafety series.
We talk all about how media andstorytelling and the arts can
be combating gun violence.
Today we're sitting downtalking about how theater, in
particular, can be an avenue fornot just bringing folks
together to talk about their ownexperiences with gun violence,
(01:06):
but to be a force for gunviolence prevention and social
justice community work To do so.
We're joined by Michael Cody ofEnough Plays Against Gun
Violence.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Thanks for having me.
My name is Michael Cody.
I am a theater director out ofthe Midwest, Primarily been in
Chicago for the last eight years, and over the course of the
last three years or so, since2019, I've been working on this
project.
Enough Plays Against GunViolence.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, and I'm wondering before we get in,
we're going to talk a lot aboutEnough Plays Against Gun
Violence, which I'm guessing weshould just call Enough.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Sure that works.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Or for a full title.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I was going to say, yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful.
We could call it Enough orEnough Plays, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Enough Plays.
I wonder if you can share howyou moved from the long theater
work that you've been involvedin because if folks are going to
Google you, they'll see thatyou've had a very impressive
career How you moved intotalking about gun violence and
gun violence in all of its weirdforms and aftermath.
How did that start?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, it was a very concrete moment for me.
I think for a lot of people,this issue is always lurking in
the background, is somethingthat you get infuriated about,
you care about, you don'tnecessarily know how to
contribute to changing things.
That was the case for me.
I think I was one of thosepeople where things would pop up
(02:32):
and I'd get incensed about whythings weren't changing and
never made sense to me.
It seems fairly obvious thatthere's some things that could
just be done about this issue,but that we were winding up in
the same place.
In fact, i was in a rehearsalhall when news about Parkland
(02:52):
broke through.
Someone had their phone up andit came in.
It was kind of watching thesame old movie again.
Everyone got really upset aboutit.
Everyone was really.
It stopped rehearsal data inits tracks and then we kind of
just kept going on with theirbusiness.
That didn't really sit rightwith me.
(03:13):
It was the third time I hadbeen in rehearsal when the news
of a mass shooting had come in.
I sat there thinking what arewe doing?
What are we doing in thisrehearsal hall if we're not
somehow using this tool that wehave to address this issue?
(03:34):
That's when the brainstormingbegan Initially.
The idea was we'll find somereally well-known playwrights,
award-winning playwrights, we'llget them the right short plays
and we'll get them produced allaround the country.
I ran that idea by a mentor ofmine by the name of Michael Rode
.
He's just brilliant in when itcomes to theater and civic
(03:56):
engagement.
He said it's a nice idea, butthose playwrights, they have a
platform.
If they want to address thisissue, they can easily do it
without any prodding fromsomeone else.
This idea went on the backburner for a while, like how
could we take theater andaddress gun violence?
(04:18):
Then I saw what came out ofParkland.
I saw teenagers and youngpeople making everyone pay
attention, doing the actual workthat us grownups should be
doing grownups and quotations.
That was so inspiring.
Columbine happened when I wasin middle school.
I do remember doing somelockdown drills, but not to the
(04:44):
extent at which they're almostubiquitous.
Now, with being a teenager, ibecame really curious.
What is that experience like,when you feel like you have to
march in the street and creategiant nationwide organizations
in order to stop people fromgetting killed by guns?
Then in 2019, there were twoback-to-back mass shootings over
(05:12):
the course of the same weekend.
I was like I feel like I've hadthis idea on the back burner.
No one's gonna do it.
You know, no one's.
No one's gonna take my idea anddo it.
The only way to go out thereand Start engaging with theater
and on this issue is just tolaunch it.
(05:33):
And you know that fall.
I think I emailed every theaterin the country.
And called in every favor that Ihad sort of accumulated over 10
years of being a theaterprofessional And found a lot of
people.
In the three years since Istarted that product, this
project, i found a lot of peoplewho felt the same way, who felt
(05:56):
like One we weren't doingenough about this issue in the
theater, to that the theater isreally underutilized tool for
activism.
And That three, we talk aboutmarginalized groups all the time
in the theater And how we wantto make sure the stories we tell
represent everybody in ourcommunities.
(06:18):
Well, marginalized group thatwe don't talk often enough about
our young people.
Young people kind of often haveno place in American theater,
unless it's, and you know, atyour high school or theater for
young audiences, which isusually great, but on the main
stage in larger companiesThey're not making space for
these voices.
So as enough began to takeshape, we were finding this
(06:45):
Confluence of many things thatwe could accomplish with this
one program.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So let's get into it a little bit.
So what is enough and what areyou trying to do with it?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, if I were to oversimplify it, it
starts with a playwritingcompetition.
We put out a call across thecountry for Teen writers in
previous years that's been likesix to twelve grade, this year
It's 13 to 19 to write short,ten minute plays about the issue
of gun violence.
And then, through a process ofreading and selection, we bring
(07:18):
together a Small group of thoseplays around six of those plays
and then we make those playsavailable to theaters, high
schools, community organizations, anyone who wants to produce
them.
We make them available acrossthe country so that we single
out a day In the year that wehave a nationwide reading and we
(07:38):
get organizations to join us onthat day to read these plays.
And So you know, if act one isgetting the plays written, an
act two is getting the plays upon their feet and producing
communities.
Act three of the project isreally then okay, now you've
heard these plays, what are yougonna do about it?
like what, what, what is itmoving you to do in a way that
(08:00):
maybe you hadn't hadn't had theThe nudge in the past?
and so each one of thesereadings in these Communities is
unique, because this issuedoesn't impact every community
the same way.
So we really encourage, whetherit's a theater or a high school
, to utilize this event as anopportunity to have those
(08:22):
critical Conversations and alsoinspire action in the community.
That comes down to who do youinvite like, do you if your
school, inviting your principaland your superintendent, your
school board members, or Branchout inviting people from the
city, city council and mayorsWe've had us representatives
show up at our readings andpeople who sit on committees
(08:45):
about crime prevention and Outof these you know what the plays
do.
It gives a common meeting groundto Talk about and think about
these issues through theperspective of young people,
which many of the folks in theaudience who are adults Are so
far removed from theirexperience that it becomes this
(09:06):
huge moment of realization ofhow different their experience
is growing up and how much theythink about this issue in
comparison to when they wereteenagers.
And these opportunities to dothese readings have Flourished
in a lot of amazing ways ifthey've created some
(09:27):
long-standing partnershipsbetween theaters and local
violence and gun violenceprevention organizations and
greater relationships betweenthe teens in their community and
the theater company.
So that's the overarching sortof through line of the project.
And then the plays getpublished and they get.
(09:48):
They're available in perpetuityfor theater companies and high
schools to produce as part oftheir seasons and Something that
they can continue to be used asa tool beyond our nationwide
reading date and having readthrough The plays and I have a
few favorites I don't know if wecan call them out.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Here on it, i think but I think rehearsals my
favorite by far out of all ofthem, which we're going to be
linking to where folks can findthe plays to go through and read
them, but that one particulardeals was kind of this obsession
with lockdown drills.
Yeah and I think goes to showthe way that adults are forcing
this neuroses of gun violencethrough our lack of action And
then like how we are choosing torespond to gun violence.
(10:29):
And I think it fits with a lotof things we've talked on here.
But I want to really stress toothat I think it's it's so vital
that the types of gun violenceand that the content of These
short plays are not just on massshootings, right, and are not
just on a particular response ora moment of gun violence.
It's.
(10:49):
It's not very like, i think Ithink of the plays that would
have been produced kind of whenI when I think when we all were
in school, right, would havebeen very like lifetime movie
special, sure, on this right.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Like where, whereas these are, i think, for the most
part very raw depictions of alldifferent types of gun violence
, all different types ofcommunities, different types of
people and What gun violencedoes more broadly to kind of the
world, and I'm wondering ifthat was intentional well, i
mean, yes, but also, in thebeginning, you know, i was a
little ignorant, right, so I'm,i'm creating this project in
(11:23):
response to these mass schoolshootings, right, and I, i was
schooled pretty early on byreaching out to, you know, folks
in gun violence preventionOrganizations and other people
who have, you know, dealt withthis issue, that you need to
think a little bit, brought morebroadly, about this and Think
about all of the ways that thisissue impacts communities.
(11:46):
So What has been Releviatory tome about this project and I,
you know, i've read 300something of these plays at this
point, right, is, yes, thereare, there are plenty of plays
that are about school shootingsand mass shootings, and there's
also, you know, you've got newpeople who are writing plays,
(12:07):
the teens who have never writtenplays before.
So there's, you know, there's agood number of plays that focus
on the act of violence.
You know, and and that'ssomething, if we lay out one
ground rule, sort of, when weput out this call for
submissions Is, like you know,it's probably least interesting
to focus on depicting violence.
You know, what is gun violenceabout?
(12:28):
what is the story about gunviolence about?
it's about people.
It's about the moments thatlead up to or the moments
afterwards.
It's the response, it's who'simpacted.
So we try to really lay thatout there, to try to stray
people away from feeling like aclay about gun violence is
depicting violence.
But then, man, that first yearwe had seven plays and and what
(12:50):
made me really open my eyes isThe.
What they are writing about.
They're writing about gunviolence, but they're writing
about gun violence like it'sLike if you hurt yourself, you
have inflammation around thewound, right.
They're writing about gunviolence like it's inflammation,
right, but what's the rootcause, like what's the root
(13:12):
injury?
So you have plays that areabout racial inequity.
You have pray.
There's one play that's afour-act circus.
That's about how gun violenceis tied to the American
mythology and colonialism andjust the, the way we took the
land from the people who areoriginally inhabited here, how
(13:32):
those things are linked.
And Here I am reading theseplays and I'm like, well, this
is not what I expected at all.
Yeah but I'm learning so much,and I'm learning just how
Perseus this issue is and how itis linked to so many other
issues That we ought to betalking about.
(13:53):
So these plays and these, theseplaywrights are so smart in
that when they write these plays, they're writing about how did
we get to this moment, like, howdid we get to this moment of
gun violence?
Like, why did it happen?
It's not Just because someonepulled the trigger on a gun,
it's all of these other thingsthat precipitated it.
(14:14):
So that's been really exciting.
And then, intentionally, though,as we Select our collection
each year, we are trying to lookat the collection and be like
okay, we're covering this angle,we're looking at this story.
We we don't want to have a washof the same aspect of the issue
(14:34):
being played out again andagain and again.
We also try to do that in termsof like, how do people approach
it?
Like if this is more of a likea coral or group piece, and that
this is like a scene or amonologue or Or tone too.
But it's hard, because you knowit's it's a, it's a hard topic
to write, say, a comedy about,right.
(14:55):
So yeah so there.
But interesting themes emergetoo.
So the first year, when peopleare writing, like in the height
of the pandemic and lockdown, somany of those seven plays were
about anxiety, you know the, thefear that it's going to happen
eventually.
And then last year's plays the2022 plays were very much.
(15:19):
It was.
It was almost like grief wasthe theme like.
It was like a resignation tothe inevitability that this is
going to happen.
And, and you know, i don't knowif it's going back to school
and paying back in The remindersof that, that environment that
it could happen at any time, iswhat shifted.
But it's interesting that whenwe're pairing them together, we
(15:42):
start to see, you know, westarted to take the temperature
of maybe like where this classof writers is.
That.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm wondering.
You mentioned some of thesubmissions come from people who
have never written a playbefore, and Also you're focusing
on youth, and so I'm wonderingif you could walk us through the
process from an initialsubmission to a play actually
Opening up.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah.
Well, what's what I think iscool about the project?
and I'm biased, of course, butwhat I think is cool is that you
know there's no fee to entry.
So anybody who wants to writeplay or wants to be a part of it
, you know Your school doesn'teven have to sign up.
You just if you find out aboutthe opportunity, you can go
through the whole processyourself and submit the play.
So there's really like, look,very low barriers to do that and
(16:26):
once the plays are submitted,depending on how many we get we
You know I again calling infavors from all my theater
friends We get together, youknow, between 75 to 100
different readers to readthrough the plays.
Each play gets read at leastthree times by by three
(16:46):
different individuals and Everyplaywright will at least get
feedback by three individuals.
It's really important to methat, because it is important
that what they're writing downand that the people are putting
themselves out there, that theyknow that they're being heard
and they know that someone readtheir play.
There's so many of these kindof competitions where you just
(17:07):
kind of like send off the emailand it goes off into the void
And you have no idea, like ifanyone you've ever read it.
So that's a big component forus.
There's two rounds.
If you make it through thesecond round You'll get up to
six people reading your play.
At that point We try to paredown the submissions to about
like 20 or so and that those 20are read by our our selection
(17:32):
committee.
And the past Three rounds ofthis, including this current
round, that selection committeehas included Academy
award-winning screenwriters,tony award-winning and Pulitzer
Prize winning playwrights, someof the most produced playwrights
in America now.
And what I love about that isthat you have sort of the
premier voices of today Lookingat the voices of the future,
(17:56):
right, and they, they go through, they read all 20 of them, they
give all 20 of them feedback.
So you're getting this feedbackfrom these amazing artists and
then we get together over zoomand we sort of Hash it out like
who, what will be our lineup andwhy, and then, once those plays
are picked, playwrights Will bea part of a workshop in process
(18:18):
to Incorporate any feedbackthat they agree with.
You know the plays still there,so they have final say, but
they get to incorporate anyfeedback that they want and
revise their play.
And then you know on on theback end.
I'm trying to get every theaterand high school signed up to do
this process of putting on theplays for the nationwide reading
(18:40):
.
And Last year what was reallygreat is that we had our
flagship reading at LincolnCenter in New York City.
It was performed by roundaboutyouth ensemble and all eight of
our playwrights were able tocome out and watch That reading
in New York City.
Yeah, it was awesome because,especially that first year,
(19:01):
everything was digital and wehad a really great like digital
collaboration with some reallybig theaters across the country.
But for me, i, i, we were.
The first thing we did that dayis we had a Little tour of our
publisher in New York who, whoputs out the plays when they're
all done, invited us, invited usall over to their offices And I
(19:22):
came into the room and I sawall the playwrights sitting
there And I broke down like Icried because it was suddenly
tangible.
You know like these were Here.
They were.
This is the first time I hadmet any of the playwrights,
really any of the people workingon this project, and it really
just, you know, drove home the,the tangible human aspect of
(19:46):
this.
So I mean that experience ofGoing through that process of
your plays selected.
You know people are reading it,you know you're getting
feedback, you're working on itthe whole professional
playwright experience and thenseeing it come to life On stage
and then being able to pick itup and hold it in your hand.
(20:07):
You know that's one of the goal.
Goals of this project from theget-go was that they feel like
Professionals through the wholeprocess, that they're treated
like professionals through thewhole process.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
That's incredible and I was wondering if you could
just sort of break it down thewhat the flagship performance is
.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Oh sure, absolutely.
So we have this large, you knowCollaboration, this grassroots
collaboration of people doingthe plays on the same evening,
but it would It was pointed outto me pretty early on is like
that's massive and also hard topin down, like hard to picture
(20:46):
and hard to sort of get yourarms around without say like a
centralized sort of like hubproduction that feels like the
cornerstone of the largernational effort.
The point of it is it's kind oflike one place where we can,
you know, then bring a lot ofattention to the project and
then shine that attention backout to what people are doing
(21:09):
nationally.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I just I really want to applaud the work that you
were doing, that enough placesdoing more broadly, because
that's better than someprofessional experiences are by
far right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Many.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yes, in terms of not just the the fact that you know
people are reading it, and thenthe mentorship, but like then,
the production value of knowingthat your work is being actually
performed, which is always thegoal of theater writing right,
like you don't expect it to justlive on a page, so to know that
folks across the country arehearing it and seeing it, and
then that this has a particularpoint to it right That added.
(21:44):
then activism part, I think,despite a lot of you know kind
of this thorough line of despairor frustration that's in a lot
of these plays, I think has tothen have a benefit in terms of,
like hopefulness for change,right, That you're actually
seeing the adults in the roomtrying to understand and trying
to amplify the voice and thenyoung people being able to hear
(22:06):
it and see it and participate init, Because so many of the
characters are you can likethey're young people themselves,
right?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, yeah, i.
I think one thing that I'macutely aware of this time
around in year three, andsomething we're working with
team enough on as our nationalaction partner for this round,
is that when people hear theplays, and they're and we've
concluded their evening andthey've heard all the plays and
they're sort of now marinatingin what all of this is they're
(22:36):
kind of ready, like they want toknow, like, what do I do next?
What do you want me to do?
I'm pissed, i feel enlightened,i feel energized.
Give me something to do.
And I think you know not thatwe've failed on this point the
last two years, but this yearwe're really, really interested
(22:57):
in how do we, how do we catchthose people right, like they're
ready to take this big leap onthis issue?
And, like me, i think you knowthere's a lot of people who,
this, this is an issue that theydo truly care about, but
haven't been moved to action yet.
You know, just just have beenright up to the line about, like
, i care about this, i know it'simportant, i want to do
(23:20):
something.
What do I do?
And I think this is sort ofthis event breaks down those
barriers, right, that'ssomething about theater too,
like.
I think that's why, you know,early on, people are like well,
you know, like, why is it justtheater?
Why not do, like film or musicor, like you know, visual arts?
And I'm like, the thing abouttheater is that you it's about
(23:44):
community and it's about theactors need us, the audience, in
order for this exchange tohappen.
And we, you know, for lack of abetter word we become complicit
in the act of these storiesplaying out.
And so we get invested.
And you know, the engine oftheater is empathy.
(24:04):
And as much as the statisticsaround this issue, they're
fucking insane.
They drive you to completeinsanity.
They just don't seem to do thejob, for whatever reason.
Like I, little sidebar, iremember being a freshman in
high school and actually doing acivics debate about you know
why there should be stricterlaws around gun violence
(24:28):
prevention, and I just stood upthere and I just, i, just, i
just said statistics.
I wasn't really debating, i wasjust like being like I don't
know how there is a debate here,and I remember I think I lost
that debate because I can'tremember the reason, but it was
something around like, because Iwas just saying statistics and
like, but that should be reasonenough, right, like it's math,
(24:51):
but because it isn't enough,these plays end up being a way
to pierce through the sort ofinaction, the apathy, the sort
of I guess that's just how it ismentality that seems to be
something pervading our societyat the moment, and specifically
(25:15):
for I think I mean, i think theteens who are involved get it.
I mean, they're, they're, ithink they're right there with
it I think it's the adults inthe room who end up being like
wow, i had no idea, really, youknow.
So theater ends up being thisperfect vehicle to talk about
the issue, to look at it from adifferent angle and, to you know
(25:40):
, get these sort of like quickbut deep dives into these
different stories and make youfeel something about the issue,
and not beyond, just maybe likeannoyed or incensed or enraged,
but you feel.
One of the things that MannyOliver changed the ref says is
that you know people say to himlike I can't imagine, you know
(26:00):
what it is like losing your son.
You know I can't imagine this.
And like I think these playsput people in the place of
imagining, like you're with usfor 90 minutes, your job is to
imagine And now that you've seenit through that lens.
What do you want to do about it?
Anecdotally, about this project,all I ever hear is that people
(26:22):
walk away from it feelingchanged somehow, that the plays
have got them to thinkdifferently, that writing the
plays, even if they're involvedin this movement, got them to
think about their activism in adifferent way and maybe even
clarify what it is that they'rereally all about.
That these young playwrightsfeel changed just through the
act of getting their voice downand figuring out what their
(26:46):
voice is.
You know, not everybody whowants to be a part of saying
something or enacting changeabout this issue is gonna be the
kind of person who's gonna beable to feel comfortable
standing up at a rally andspeaking or, you know, marching
or you know, or starting a giantorganization right.
But they have somethingimportant to say And my hope is
(27:09):
that, through enough, we canprovide some sort of outlet for
that and those people.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
And I'm wondering what other impacts have come
from the enough plays for theaudience, for the creators, for
mentors, for everyone sort ofinvolved in this process in some
way.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, i mean to highlight a few examples.
So last year we had one of ourplaywrights, taylor Lafayette.
Her brother was shot and killed.
It was a mugging.
There's like no informationabout who the person was.
It's completely you know.
It's a complete mystery And youknow she was grieving And she
(27:52):
learned about this project soonafter that happened and used the
process as a way to well to gether voice out there.
But then and to get heremotions that had been sort of
boiling under the surface likeout onto the page, but then also
(28:13):
seeing it in performance,seeing how it has an impact on
other people and that thepurpose of her writing can be to
move other individuals and tothat, her turning her pain into
a purpose.
That's a phrase.
Another group out of South Bend,indiana, connect to be the
(28:33):
change.
They.
That was founded by two motherswho both lost kids to gun
violence.
One of the mothers, luria, losttwo kids to gun violence.
They partnered with South BendCivic Theater first year And the
second year Luria came back.
She is now employed by thetheater and also she was like
directing the reading and shewas casting survivors in her
(28:57):
network that lined up with theplays to, you know, bring their
story to, the stories that theseyoung people had written, and
so there's things like that.
That like when you, you know,when I look back and I think
about how this whole project was, in a way, just a knee-jerk
reaction to maybe like my ownembarrassment that I wasn't
(29:18):
doing anything about this issueand that I couldn't have
conceived of some of theseoutcomes, it's, i guess it's
just it's been very satisfyingfor me as an artist and I would
say like to it to answer thisquestion in one other way, like
it's made me really think aboutwhat it is should theater be
(29:39):
doing in communities and in areaction to things like this in
society.
It's made me really reconsidersort of where my center is as a
theater artist as well and howam I using this vocation to
really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
And I wonder where you see enough plays going in
the future, beyond, obviously,when people are winning Tonys,
you know calling out as theirfirst, as their first production
, you getting a name drop, what?
where do you see thisinevitably going in the next
coming years?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, i think we're entering this third year and I
think we are following a similartimeline that we did the last
two years.
But I do think that there'sprobably a shift in the future
on, like, how to apply this work.
So like, for instance, by thetime we're done with this round,
we'll have three.
You know volumes of anthologiesthat exist as tools that can be
(30:35):
used in this space.
So how are we leveraging theexisting tools we have?
And that's so?
that's.
One question that I have is likehow can we use those as an
effective way to startconversations all across the
country?
And then the second thing thatI think about a lot is,
intentionally, this program hasa really broad reach and has
(30:58):
casting a really wide net to tryto get young people and theater
companies, et cetera, from allover the country to participate
in a big national conversation.
But what if I were to say, goto our collaborators at the
Goodman Theater in Chicago or goto our collaborators at South
(31:18):
Bend Civic Theater and do a morefocused, deep dive with the
community?
that's not necessarily aroundyou know a competition selection
process but just in making surethose stories are heard.
Those are some things I thinkabout in the future.
And then also I think about howthis is.
(31:40):
You know there are other.
Gun violence is one of manyissues that we need to figure
out, some movement forward onHow this model of engaging
theater with issues that youngpeople care about, how that
model can then be applied toother topics as well.
So those are some of the waysthat I think moving forward and
(32:03):
you know, eventually, like I'dlove to be able to convince all
the theaters that we work withthat this is something that they
can model their programming ontoo, and work with the young
people and their communities,even if it's not about gun
violence, but just because thatconnection between the theater
(32:23):
companies and the youth needs tobe strengthened all around.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It's like youth civic art engagement Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, i mean that's been.
the exciting thing about thisproject is that it does become
an intersection for many things,and often there are theater
artists who find themselvesreally passionate about one or
two of those or all three ofthose things, right, and so it's
(32:52):
been interesting to see, whenpeople roll out this program in
their community, what they focuson and how, because it really
can be something that can betailor-made to what it is that
their priorities are as atheater company.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
And if people are listening and hopefully they're
like I want to read these playsor I know a student I got to
tell about this.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I need all of the anthologies tomorrow I want to
see a production of this in myhometown.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Yeah, where should they go to learn more about it?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Absolutely Well.
Best place to go is our website, so enoughplayscom.
Obviously, we're on the socialmedias and you can find us on
Instagram and Facebook atenoughplaysproject, and Twitter
at enoughplays.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And, of course, all those links will be in the
description of this episode.
But please go check them outeveryone, because really plays
and gun violence.
It's the best Hey want to sharewith the podcast.
Listeners can now get in touchwith us here at RedBlueandBrady
via phone or text message.
Simply call or text us at480-744-3452, with your thoughts
(34:01):
, questions, concerns ideas, catpictures, whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Thanks for listening.
As always, brady's lifesavingwork in Congress, the courts and
communities across the countryis made possible thanks to you.
For more information on Bradyor how to get involved in the
fight against gun violence,please like and subscribe to the
podcast.
Get in touch with us atBradyUnitedorg or on social at
BradyBuzz.
Be brave and remember.
(34:26):
Take action, not size.
Don't buy guns, don't drug,don't die with guns.
This is the legal disclaimer, where I tell you
that the views, thoughts andopinion shared on this podcast
belong solely to our guests andhosts and not necessarily Brady
or Brady's affiliates.
Please note this podcastcontains discussions of violence
that some people may finddisturbing.
It's okay, we find itdisturbing too.
Hey, everybody, welcome back toanother episode of Red, blue
(00:44):
and Brady.
I'm one of your hosts, jj, andwe're coming at you with episode
three and, i'm sure, yoursafety series.
We talk all about how media andstorytelling and the arts can
be combating gun violence.
Today we're sitting downtalking about how theater, in
particular, can be an avenue fornot just bringing folks
together to talk about their ownexperiences with gun violence,
(01:06):
but to be a force for gunviolence prevention and social
justice community work To do so.
We're joined by Michael Cody ofEnough Plays Against Gun
Violence.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Thanks for having me.
My name is Michael Cody.
I am a theater director out ofthe Midwest, Primarily been in
Chicago for the last eight years, and over the course of the
last three years or so, since2019, I've been working on this
project.
Enough Plays Against GunViolence.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, and I'm wondering before we get in,
we're going to talk a lot aboutEnough Plays Against Gun
Violence, which I'm guessing weshould just call Enough.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Sure that works.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Or for a full title.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I was going to say, yeah, it's a bit of a mouthful.
We could call it Enough orEnough Plays, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Enough Plays.
I wonder if you can share howyou moved from the long theater
work that you've been involvedin because if folks are going to
Google you, they'll see thatyou've had a very impressive
career How you moved intotalking about gun violence and
gun violence in all of its weirdforms and aftermath.
How did that start?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, it was a very concrete moment for me.
I think for a lot of people,this issue is always lurking in
the background, is somethingthat you get infuriated about,
you care about, you don'tnecessarily know how to
contribute to changing things.
That was the case for me.
I think I was one of thosepeople where things would pop up
(02:32):
and I'd get incensed about whythings weren't changing and
never made sense to me.
It seems fairly obvious thatthere's some things that could
just be done about this issue,but that we were winding up in
the same place.
In fact, i was in a rehearsalhall when news about Parkland
(02:52):
broke through.
Someone had their phone up andit came in.
It was kind of watching thesame old movie again.
Everyone got really upset aboutit.
Everyone was really.
It stopped rehearsal data inits tracks and then we kind of
just kept going on with theirbusiness.
That didn't really sit rightwith me.
(03:13):
It was the third time I hadbeen in rehearsal when the news
of a mass shooting had come in.
I sat there thinking what arewe doing?
What are we doing in thisrehearsal hall if we're not
somehow using this tool that wehave to address this issue?
(03:34):
That's when the brainstormingbegan Initially.
The idea was we'll find somereally well-known playwrights,
award-winning playwrights, we'llget them the right short plays
and we'll get them produced allaround the country.
I ran that idea by a mentor ofmine by the name of Michael Rode
.
He's just brilliant in when itcomes to theater and civic
(03:56):
engagement.
He said it's a nice idea, butthose playwrights, they have a
platform.
If they want to address thisissue, they can easily do it
without any prodding fromsomeone else.
This idea went on the backburner for a while, like how
could we take theater andaddress gun violence?
(04:18):
Then I saw what came out ofParkland.
I saw teenagers and youngpeople making everyone pay
attention, doing the actual workthat us grownups should be
doing grownups and quotations.
That was so inspiring.
Columbine happened when I wasin middle school.
I do remember doing somelockdown drills, but not to the
(04:44):
extent at which they're almostubiquitous.
Now, with being a teenager, ibecame really curious.
What is that experience like,when you feel like you have to
march in the street and creategiant nationwide organizations
in order to stop people fromgetting killed by guns?
Then in 2019, there were twoback-to-back mass shootings over
(05:12):
the course of the same weekend.
I was like I feel like I've hadthis idea on the back burner.
No one's gonna do it.
You know, no one's.
No one's gonna take my idea anddo it.
The only way to go out thereand Start engaging with theater
and on this issue is just tolaunch it.
(05:33):
And you know that fall.
I think I emailed every theaterin the country.
And called in every favor that Ihad sort of accumulated over 10
years of being a theaterprofessional And found a lot of
people.
In the three years since Istarted that product, this
project, i found a lot of peoplewho felt the same way, who felt
(05:56):
like One we weren't doingenough about this issue in the
theater, to that the theater isreally underutilized tool for
activism.
And That three, we talk aboutmarginalized groups all the time
in the theater And how we wantto make sure the stories we tell
represent everybody in ourcommunities.
(06:18):
Well, marginalized group thatwe don't talk often enough about
our young people.
Young people kind of often haveno place in American theater,
unless it's, and you know, atyour high school or theater for
young audiences, which isusually great, but on the main
stage in larger companiesThey're not making space for
these voices.
So as enough began to takeshape, we were finding this
(06:45):
Confluence of many things thatwe could accomplish with this
one program.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So let's get into it a little bit.
So what is enough and what areyou trying to do with it?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, if I were to oversimplify it, it
starts with a playwritingcompetition.
We put out a call across thecountry for Teen writers in
previous years that's been likesix to twelve grade, this year
It's 13 to 19 to write short,ten minute plays about the issue
of gun violence.
And then, through a process ofreading and selection, we bring
(07:18):
together a Small group of thoseplays around six of those plays
and then we make those playsavailable to theaters, high
schools, community organizations, anyone who wants to produce
them.
We make them available acrossthe country so that we single
out a day In the year that wehave a nationwide reading and we
(07:38):
get organizations to join us onthat day to read these plays.
And So you know, if act one isgetting the plays written, an
act two is getting the plays upon their feet and producing
communities.
Act three of the project isreally then okay, now you've
heard these plays, what are yougonna do about it?
like what, what, what is itmoving you to do in a way that
(08:00):
maybe you hadn't hadn't had theThe nudge in the past?
and so each one of thesereadings in these Communities is
unique, because this issuedoesn't impact every community
the same way.
So we really encourage, whetherit's a theater or a high school
, to utilize this event as anopportunity to have those
(08:22):
critical Conversations and alsoinspire action in the community.
That comes down to who do youinvite like, do you if your
school, inviting your principaland your superintendent, your
school board members, or Branchout inviting people from the
city, city council and mayorsWe've had us representatives
show up at our readings andpeople who sit on committees
(08:45):
about crime prevention and Outof these you know what the plays
do.
It gives a common meeting groundto Talk about and think about
these issues through theperspective of young people,
which many of the folks in theaudience who are adults Are so
far removed from theirexperience that it becomes this
(09:06):
huge moment of realization ofhow different their experience
is growing up and how much theythink about this issue in
comparison to when they wereteenagers.
And these opportunities to dothese readings have Flourished
in a lot of amazing ways ifthey've created some
(09:27):
long-standing partnershipsbetween theaters and local
violence and gun violenceprevention organizations and
greater relationships betweenthe teens in their community and
the theater company.
So that's the overarching sortof through line of the project.
And then the plays getpublished and they get.
(09:48):
They're available in perpetuityfor theater companies and high
schools to produce as part oftheir seasons and Something that
they can continue to be used asa tool beyond our nationwide
reading date and having readthrough The plays and I have a
few favorites I don't know if wecan call them out.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Here on it, i think but I think rehearsals my
favorite by far out of all ofthem, which we're going to be
linking to where folks can findthe plays to go through and read
them, but that one particulardeals was kind of this obsession
with lockdown drills.
Yeah and I think goes to showthe way that adults are forcing
this neuroses of gun violencethrough our lack of action And
then like how we are choosing torespond to gun violence.
(10:29):
And I think it fits with a lotof things we've talked on here.
But I want to really stress toothat I think it's it's so vital
that the types of gun violenceand that the content of These
short plays are not just on massshootings, right, and are not
just on a particular response ora moment of gun violence.
It's.
(10:49):
It's not very like, i think Ithink of the plays that would
have been produced kind of whenI when I think when we all were
in school, right, would havebeen very like lifetime movie
special, sure, on this right.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Like where, whereas these are, i think, for the most
part very raw depictions of alldifferent types of gun violence
, all different types ofcommunities, different types of
people and What gun violencedoes more broadly to kind of the
world, and I'm wondering ifthat was intentional well, i
mean, yes, but also, in thebeginning, you know, i was a
little ignorant, right, so I'm,i'm creating this project in
(11:23):
response to these mass schoolshootings, right, and I, i was
schooled pretty early on byreaching out to, you know, folks
in gun violence preventionOrganizations and other people
who have, you know, dealt withthis issue, that you need to
think a little bit, brought morebroadly, about this and Think
about all of the ways that thisissue impacts communities.
(11:46):
So What has been Releviatory tome about this project and I,
you know, i've read 300something of these plays at this
point, right, is, yes, thereare, there are plenty of plays
that are about school shootingsand mass shootings, and there's
also, you know, you've got newpeople who are writing plays,
(12:07):
the teens who have never writtenplays before.
So there's, you know, there's agood number of plays that focus
on the act of violence.
You know, and and that'ssomething, if we lay out one
ground rule, sort of, when weput out this call for
submissions Is, like you know,it's probably least interesting
to focus on depicting violence.
You know, what is gun violenceabout?
(12:28):
what is the story about gunviolence about?
it's about people.
It's about the moments thatlead up to or the moments
afterwards.
It's the response, it's who'simpacted.
So we try to really lay thatout there, to try to stray
people away from feeling like aclay about gun violence is
depicting violence.
But then, man, that first yearwe had seven plays and and what
(12:50):
made me really open my eyes isThe.
What they are writing about.
They're writing about gunviolence, but they're writing
about gun violence like it'sLike if you hurt yourself, you
have inflammation around thewound, right.
They're writing about gunviolence like it's inflammation,
right, but what's the rootcause, like what's the root
(13:12):
injury?
So you have plays that areabout racial inequity.
You have pray.
There's one play that's afour-act circus.
That's about how gun violenceis tied to the American
mythology and colonialism andjust the, the way we took the
land from the people who areoriginally inhabited here, how
(13:32):
those things are linked.
And Here I am reading theseplays and I'm like, well, this
is not what I expected at all.
Yeah but I'm learning so much,and I'm learning just how
Perseus this issue is and how itis linked to so many other
issues That we ought to betalking about.
(13:53):
So these plays and these, theseplaywrights are so smart in
that when they write these plays, they're writing about how did
we get to this moment, like, howdid we get to this moment of
gun violence?
Like, why did it happen?
It's not Just because someonepulled the trigger on a gun,
it's all of these other thingsthat precipitated it.
(14:14):
So that's been really exciting.
And then, intentionally, though,as we Select our collection
each year, we are trying to lookat the collection and be like
okay, we're covering this angle,we're looking at this story.
We we don't want to have a washof the same aspect of the issue
(14:34):
being played out again andagain and again.
We also try to do that in termsof like, how do people approach
it?
Like if this is more of a likea coral or group piece, and that
this is like a scene or amonologue or Or tone too.
But it's hard, because you knowit's it's a, it's a hard topic
to write, say, a comedy about,right.
(14:55):
So yeah so there.
But interesting themes emergetoo.
So the first year, when peopleare writing, like in the height
of the pandemic and lockdown, somany of those seven plays were
about anxiety, you know the, thefear that it's going to happen
eventually.
And then last year's plays the2022 plays were very much.
(15:19):
It was.
It was almost like grief wasthe theme like.
It was like a resignation tothe inevitability that this is
going to happen.
And, and you know, i don't knowif it's going back to school
and paying back in The remindersof that, that environment that
it could happen at any time, iswhat shifted.
But it's interesting that whenwe're pairing them together, we
(15:42):
start to see, you know, westarted to take the temperature
of maybe like where this classof writers is.
That.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm wondering.
You mentioned some of thesubmissions come from people who
have never written a playbefore, and Also you're focusing
on youth, and so I'm wonderingif you could walk us through the
process from an initialsubmission to a play actually
Opening up.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah.
Well, what's what I think iscool about the project?
and I'm biased, of course, butwhat I think is cool is that you
know there's no fee to entry.
So anybody who wants to writeplay or wants to be a part of it
, you know Your school doesn'teven have to sign up.
You just if you find out aboutthe opportunity, you can go
through the whole processyourself and submit the play.
So there's really like, look,very low barriers to do that and
(16:26):
once the plays are submitted,depending on how many we get we
You know I again calling infavors from all my theater
friends We get together, youknow, between 75 to 100
different readers to readthrough the plays.
Each play gets read at leastthree times by by three
(16:46):
different individuals and Everyplaywright will at least get
feedback by three individuals.
It's really important to methat, because it is important
that what they're writing downand that the people are putting
themselves out there, that theyknow that they're being heard
and they know that someone readtheir play.
There's so many of these kindof competitions where you just
(17:07):
kind of like send off the emailand it goes off into the void
And you have no idea, like ifanyone you've ever read it.
So that's a big component forus.
There's two rounds.
If you make it through thesecond round You'll get up to
six people reading your play.
At that point We try to paredown the submissions to about
like 20 or so and that those 20are read by our our selection
(17:32):
committee.
And the past Three rounds ofthis, including this current
round, that selection committeehas included Academy
award-winning screenwriters,tony award-winning and Pulitzer
Prize winning playwrights, someof the most produced playwrights
in America now.
And what I love about that isthat you have sort of the
premier voices of today Lookingat the voices of the future,
(17:56):
right, and they, they go through, they read all 20 of them, they
give all 20 of them feedback.
So you're getting this feedbackfrom these amazing artists and
then we get together over zoomand we sort of Hash it out like
who, what will be our lineup andwhy, and then, once those plays
are picked, playwrights Will bea part of a workshop in process
(18:18):
to Incorporate any feedbackthat they agree with.
You know the plays still there,so they have final say, but
they get to incorporate anyfeedback that they want and
revise their play.
And then you know on on theback end.
I'm trying to get every theaterand high school signed up to do
this process of putting on theplays for the nationwide reading
(18:40):
.
And Last year what was reallygreat is that we had our
flagship reading at LincolnCenter in New York City.
It was performed by roundaboutyouth ensemble and all eight of
our playwrights were able tocome out and watch That reading
in New York City.
Yeah, it was awesome because,especially that first year,
(19:01):
everything was digital and wehad a really great like digital
collaboration with some reallybig theaters across the country.
But for me, i, i, we were.
The first thing we did that dayis we had a Little tour of our
publisher in New York who, whoputs out the plays when they're
all done, invited us, invited usall over to their offices And I
(19:22):
came into the room and I sawall the playwrights sitting
there And I broke down like Icried because it was suddenly
tangible.
You know like these were Here.
They were.
This is the first time I hadmet any of the playwrights,
really any of the people workingon this project, and it really
just, you know, drove home the,the tangible human aspect of
(19:46):
this.
So I mean that experience ofGoing through that process of
your plays selected.
You know people are reading it,you know you're getting
feedback, you're working on itthe whole professional
playwright experience and thenseeing it come to life On stage
and then being able to pick itup and hold it in your hand.
(20:07):
You know that's one of the goal.
Goals of this project from theget-go was that they feel like
Professionals through the wholeprocess, that they're treated
like professionals through thewhole process.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
That's incredible and I was wondering if you could
just sort of break it down thewhat the flagship performance is
.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Oh sure, absolutely.
So we have this large, you knowCollaboration, this grassroots
collaboration of people doingthe plays on the same evening,
but it would It was pointed outto me pretty early on is like
that's massive and also hard topin down, like hard to picture
(20:46):
and hard to sort of get yourarms around without say like a
centralized sort of like hubproduction that feels like the
cornerstone of the largernational effort.
The point of it is it's kind oflike one place where we can,
you know, then bring a lot ofattention to the project and
then shine that attention backout to what people are doing
(21:09):
nationally.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I just I really want to applaud the work that you
were doing, that enough placesdoing more broadly, because
that's better than someprofessional experiences are by
far right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Many.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yes, in terms of not just the the fact that you know
people are reading it, and thenthe mentorship, but like then,
the production value of knowingthat your work is being actually
performed, which is always thegoal of theater writing right,
like you don't expect it to justlive on a page, so to know that
folks across the country arehearing it and seeing it, and
then that this has a particularpoint to it right That added.
(21:44):
then activism part, I think,despite a lot of you know kind
of this thorough line of despairor frustration that's in a lot
of these plays, I think has tothen have a benefit in terms of,
like hopefulness for change,right, That you're actually
seeing the adults in the roomtrying to understand and trying
to amplify the voice and thenyoung people being able to hear
(22:06):
it and see it and participate init, Because so many of the
characters are you can likethey're young people themselves,
right?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, yeah, i.
I think one thing that I'macutely aware of this time
around in year three, andsomething we're working with
team enough on as our nationalaction partner for this round,
is that when people hear theplays, and they're and we've
concluded their evening andthey've heard all the plays and
they're sort of now marinatingin what all of this is they're
(22:36):
kind of ready, like they want toknow, like, what do I do next?
What do you want me to do?
I'm pissed, i feel enlightened,i feel energized.
Give me something to do.
And I think you know not thatwe've failed on this point the
last two years, but this yearwe're really, really interested
(22:57):
in how do we, how do we catchthose people right, like they're
ready to take this big leap onthis issue?
And, like me, i think you knowthere's a lot of people who,
this, this is an issue that theydo truly care about, but
haven't been moved to action yet.
You know, just just have beenright up to the line about, like
, i care about this, i know it'simportant, i want to do
(23:20):
something.
What do I do?
And I think this is sort ofthis event breaks down those
barriers, right, that'ssomething about theater too,
like.
I think that's why, you know,early on, people are like well,
you know, like, why is it justtheater?
Why not do, like film or musicor, like you know, visual arts?
And I'm like, the thing abouttheater is that you it's about
(23:44):
community and it's about theactors need us, the audience, in
order for this exchange tohappen.
And we, you know, for lack of abetter word we become complicit
in the act of these storiesplaying out.
And so we get invested.
And you know, the engine oftheater is empathy.
(24:04):
And as much as the statisticsaround this issue, they're
fucking insane.
They drive you to completeinsanity.
They just don't seem to do thejob, for whatever reason.
Like I, little sidebar, iremember being a freshman in
high school and actually doing acivics debate about you know
why there should be stricterlaws around gun violence
(24:28):
prevention, and I just stood upthere and I just, i, just, i
just said statistics.
I wasn't really debating, i wasjust like being like I don't
know how there is a debate here,and I remember I think I lost
that debate because I can'tremember the reason, but it was
something around like, because Iwas just saying statistics and
like, but that should be reasonenough, right, like it's math,
(24:51):
but because it isn't enough,these plays end up being a way
to pierce through the sort ofinaction, the apathy, the sort
of I guess that's just how it ismentality that seems to be
something pervading our societyat the moment, and specifically
(25:15):
for I think I mean, i think theteens who are involved get it.
I mean, they're, they're, ithink they're right there with
it I think it's the adults inthe room who end up being like
wow, i had no idea, really, youknow.
So theater ends up being thisperfect vehicle to talk about
the issue, to look at it from adifferent angle and, to you know
(25:40):
, get these sort of like quickbut deep dives into these
different stories and make youfeel something about the issue,
and not beyond, just maybe likeannoyed or incensed or enraged,
but you feel.
One of the things that MannyOliver changed the ref says is
that you know people say to himlike I can't imagine, you know
(26:00):
what it is like losing your son.
You know I can't imagine this.
And like I think these playsput people in the place of
imagining, like you're with usfor 90 minutes, your job is to
imagine And now that you've seenit through that lens.
What do you want to do about it?
Anecdotally, about this project,all I ever hear is that people
(26:22):
walk away from it feelingchanged somehow, that the plays
have got them to thinkdifferently, that writing the
plays, even if they're involvedin this movement, got them to
think about their activism in adifferent way and maybe even
clarify what it is that they'rereally all about.
That these young playwrightsfeel changed just through the
act of getting their voice downand figuring out what their
(26:46):
voice is.
You know, not everybody whowants to be a part of saying
something or enacting changeabout this issue is gonna be the
kind of person who's gonna beable to feel comfortable
standing up at a rally andspeaking or, you know, marching
or you know, or starting a giantorganization right.
But they have somethingimportant to say And my hope is
(27:09):
that, through enough, we canprovide some sort of outlet for
that and those people.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
And I'm wondering what other impacts have come
from the enough plays for theaudience, for the creators, for
mentors, for everyone sort ofinvolved in this process in some
way.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, i mean to highlight a few examples.
So last year we had one of ourplaywrights, taylor Lafayette.
Her brother was shot and killed.
It was a mugging.
There's like no informationabout who the person was.
It's completely you know.
It's a complete mystery And youknow she was grieving And she
(27:52):
learned about this project soonafter that happened and used the
process as a way to well to gether voice out there.
But then and to get heremotions that had been sort of
boiling under the surface likeout onto the page, but then also
(28:13):
seeing it in performance,seeing how it has an impact on
other people and that thepurpose of her writing can be to
move other individuals and tothat, her turning her pain into
a purpose.
That's a phrase.
Another group out of South Bend,indiana, connect to be the
(28:33):
change.
They.
That was founded by two motherswho both lost kids to gun
violence.
One of the mothers, luria, losttwo kids to gun violence.
They partnered with South BendCivic Theater first year And the
second year Luria came back.
She is now employed by thetheater and also she was like
directing the reading and shewas casting survivors in her
(28:57):
network that lined up with theplays to, you know, bring their
story to, the stories that theseyoung people had written, and
so there's things like that.
That like when you, you know,when I look back and I think
about how this whole project was, in a way, just a knee-jerk
reaction to maybe like my ownembarrassment that I wasn't
(29:18):
doing anything about this issueand that I couldn't have
conceived of some of theseoutcomes, it's, i guess it's
just it's been very satisfyingfor me as an artist and I would
say like to it to answer thisquestion in one other way, like
it's made me really think aboutwhat it is should theater be
(29:39):
doing in communities and in areaction to things like this in
society.
It's made me really reconsidersort of where my center is as a
theater artist as well and howam I using this vocation to
really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
And I wonder where you see enough plays going in
the future, beyond, obviously,when people are winning Tonys,
you know calling out as theirfirst, as their first production
, you getting a name drop, what?
where do you see thisinevitably going in the next
coming years?
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, i think we're entering this third year and I
think we are following a similartimeline that we did the last
two years.
But I do think that there'sprobably a shift in the future
on, like, how to apply this work.
So like, for instance, by thetime we're done with this round,
we'll have three.
You know volumes of anthologiesthat exist as tools that can be
(30:35):
used in this space.
So how are we leveraging theexisting tools we have?
And that's so?
that's.
One question that I have is likehow can we use those as an
effective way to startconversations all across the
country?
And then the second thing thatI think about a lot is,
intentionally, this program hasa really broad reach and has
(30:58):
casting a really wide net to tryto get young people and theater
companies, et cetera, from allover the country to participate
in a big national conversation.
But what if I were to say, goto our collaborators at the
Goodman Theater in Chicago or goto our collaborators at South
(31:18):
Bend Civic Theater and do a morefocused, deep dive with the
community?
that's not necessarily aroundyou know a competition selection
process but just in making surethose stories are heard.
Those are some things I thinkabout in the future.
And then also I think about howthis is.
(31:40):
You know there are other.
Gun violence is one of manyissues that we need to figure
out, some movement forward onHow this model of engaging
theater with issues that youngpeople care about, how that
model can then be applied toother topics as well.
So those are some of the waysthat I think moving forward and
(32:03):
you know, eventually, like I'dlove to be able to convince all
the theaters that we work withthat this is something that they
can model their programming ontoo, and work with the young
people and their communities,even if it's not about gun
violence, but just because thatconnection between the theater
(32:23):
companies and the youth needs tobe strengthened all around.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
It's like youth civic art engagement Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, i mean that's been.
the exciting thing about thisproject is that it does become
an intersection for many things,and often there are theater
artists who find themselvesreally passionate about one or
two of those or all three ofthose things, right, and so it's
(32:52):
been interesting to see, whenpeople roll out this program in
their community, what they focuson and how, because it really
can be something that can betailor-made to what it is that
their priorities are as atheater company.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
And if people are listening and hopefully they're
like I want to read these playsor I know a student I got to
tell about this.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I need all of the anthologies tomorrow I want to
see a production of this in myhometown.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Yeah, where should they go to learn more about it?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Absolutely Well.
Best place to go is our website, so enoughplayscom.
Obviously, we're on the socialmedias and you can find us on
Instagram and Facebook atenoughplaysproject, and Twitter
at enoughplays.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And, of course, all those links will be in the
description of this episode.
But please go check them outeveryone, because really plays
and gun violence.
It's the best Hey want to sharewith the podcast.
Listeners can now get in touchwith us here at RedBlueandBrady
via phone or text message.
Simply call or text us at480-744-3452, with your thoughts
(34:01):
, questions, concerns ideas, catpictures, whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Thanks for listening.
As always, brady's lifesavingwork in Congress, the courts and
communities across the countryis made possible thanks to you.
For more information on Bradyor how to get involved in the
fight against gun violence,please like and subscribe to the
podcast.
Get in touch with us atBradyUnitedorg or on social at
BradyBuzz.
Be brave and remember.
(34:26):
Take action, not size.
Don't buy guns, don't drug,don't die with guns.
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