By Jeff Lunden, Image: #Enough, National Public Radio, April 17, 2022
Wednesday marks the 23rd anniversary of the Columbine school shootings. Across the country, theaters and civic organizations are commemorating this event by presenting readings of eight short plays by teenagers. The program is called #Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence.
Director Michael Cotey was in rehearsal on February 14, 2018, when the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., occurred. "This was the third time that I had been in rehearsal when one of these horrific mass shootings have happened," says Cotey. "So, Sandy Hook and Las Vegas, specifically. And I was like, there's got to be some way we could respond as a theater community to what felt like this just ... ceaseless violence.
Inspired by student protests following Parkland, he created the #Enough plays. In 2020, seven plays by high school students were presented, mostly on Zoom, by major regional theaters, like the Goodman in Chicago and Berkeley Rep, as well as community organizations and schools, across the country.
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