#ENOUGH presented Next Generation Voices: Social Change, Youth Activism & Writing the Future You Want To See after COVID livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 13 December 2020 at 3:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 5:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 6:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).
Join playwright Lauren Gunderson for a conversation with the young playwrights of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence about their plays, writing for social change, and the future they envision - both on stage and off.
Adelaide, Eislinn, Azya, Debkanya, Olivia, Sarah, and Elizabeth represent the bold, brave voices of the current generation and the future of American theatre. Earlier this year they answered our call for teen writers to confront gun violence with new plays that would spark critical conversations and incite meaningful action in communities across the country. Award-winning playwrights including Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan and Karen Zacarías chose their plays out of nearly 200 submissions. Their plays are thought-provoking, audacious, and vital.
This generation has proven themselves to be the generation of empathy, justice, and equity - everything the theatre celebrates. Their voice and perspective are what we desperately need to be listening to, both in society and in the theatre.
About #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence
#ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and incite meaningful action in communities across the country. Our mission is to promote playwriting as a tool for self-expression and social change, harnessing this generation's spirit of activism and providing a platform for America's playwrights of tomorrow to discover and develop their voices today.
For more information visit their website.
To watch #ENOUGH on Broadway on Demand 14-20 Dec click here.
Moderator:
Lauren Gunderson
Lauren has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list twice including 2019/20. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer; Natural Shocks; The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/Amazon. LaurenGunderson.com
Playwrights:
Adelaide Fisher
Adelaide Fisher is a Florida-based writer and a current junior. She wrote this play with the support of the Orlando Repertory Theater. She's been involved in theatre since she was 5, and wrote her first play in the 7th grade for Young Playwrights for Change. Right now, you can find her both onstage and behind the scenes proudly representing International Thespian Troupe 6614. When she's not at rehearsal, she spends her time reading, baking, studying, and doing art. She lives with her mom, her dad, her younger brother, and two pet snails, named Velma and Daphne.
Eislinn Gracen
Eislinn Gracen is Florida-based artist, writer, and current junior. Her piece, GUNS IN DRAGONLAND, was initially workshopped & produced as a virtual staged reading as the headliner for Beth Marshall Presents’ New Works Series. She was a participant and winner in the inaugural Be Original playwriting festival in 2019, hosted by New Generation Theatricals and Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. She won the Florida Theatrical Association Award for her play, WOLF IN A CONCRETE JUNGLE, which was performed as a table read at the festival and also as a staged reading at UCF last winter. Most recently, she wrote the part of THE PARDONER in the Howler’s Theatre presented virtual reading of the Orlando Fringe Festival’s THE CANTERBURY TALES PROJECT.
Azya Lyons
Azya Lyons is a Mississippi-based creative writer. She enjoys writing fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and plans to make writing her vocation. Azya is the recipient of 2 Silver Keys in Scholastics, has been published in 2 literary journals, and has won a national poetry contest.
Debkanya Mitra
Debkanya Mitra is a Maryland-based writer and is currently a student at the University of Maryland.
Olivia Ridley
Olivia Ridley is a New Jersey-based writer and a current senior . In 2018, her play SLUSH, which explored the similarly topical issue of assisted suicide, was selected to be performed at Luna Stage in NJ. Though she is deeply passionate about playwriting, she has a more extensive background as a performer, working primarily with Vanguard Theater Company in NJ, and most recently with Seth Rudetsky’s PLAYS IN THE HOUSE (Teen Edition). And her passions extend beyond theater; she loves writing/performing slam poetry when she can, and enjoys political science and debate as well. In her art, Olivia hopes to expose the nuance of “taboo” topics and spark much needed conversation, seeking to educate not only the audience, but herself as well in the process.
Sarah Schecter
Sarah Schecter is a theatre artist, community organizer, and chef from Oakland, California. She is a senior in high school studying Playwriting, and a member of the Teen Core Council at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Her work has been published by the New York Times, Still I Rise Films, and We Write The World, and performed by Oakland School for the Arts, PlayGround SF, and the Heart of Oakland Festival. She spends her non-theatrical time as President of Bay Area Student Activists, a student-led civic engagement group, and learning and cooking in kitchens around the Bay Area.
Elizabeth Shannon
Elizabeth Shannon is a Maryland-based writer and a current senior. She is an apprentice at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET), as well as a member of the Theatre Focus in the Academy for the Fine Arts. Her play, WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?, which she co-wrote with Morgan Southwell, was a winner of Baltimore Centerstage’s Young Playwright’s Festival, and a finalist in The Secret Theatre’s Act One: One Act Festival, as well as part of the live-streamed reading series, THE FUTURE WAS NOW, by Quarantined Theatre Company, which can be found on YouTube. Her play, SMOKE, has also been published through Scripts For Stage, and had a Zoom performance with University of Texas El Paso’s student organization, Ensemble. Her play, NUCLEAR is a current winner of The Blank Theatre’s 28th Annual Young Playwrights Festival.
Lauren Gunderson is the Playwright-in-Residence at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA and through the National Playwright Residency Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Find out more about Lauren's residency experience, and learn about the impact of the program at large.
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