UIS Performing Arts Center To Present Springfield's Readings On ENOUGH! Plays To End Gun Violence, November 6

UIS Performing Arts Center has announced its participation in the Nationwide Reading of ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence on Monday, November 6, 2023 in the UIS Studio Theatre. The UIS Performing Arts Center will join more than 50 other communities around the United States to perform this year's winning play selections as art, activism, and teen voices unite on stage in a vital evening of theater addressing gun violence in our community. The readings will be held in the intimate UIS Studio Theatre and tickets are $10, available at https://UISpac.com/.

ENOUGH! calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country. The organization received 244 submissions from 36 states this past spring when it called on teens to write 10-minute plays on gun violence. This year's plays were selected by nationally recognized dramatists Idris Goodwin, Lauren Gunderson, Zora Howard, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Octavio Solis, and Lloyd Suh.

“These plays provide powerful insight into the perspective of a generation where the threat of gun violence has become ubiquitous with going to school growing up,” says ENOUGH! creator Michael Cotey, “Performing them across the country exactly a year from the next presidential election is an urgent reminder that gun violence remains a vital issue for many young voters coming of age next November.”

The UIS Performing Arts Center's reading is part of a series of readings happening simultaneously across the country. More than fifty communities across the country are staging readings on November 6th, including a cornerstone reading at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

For the Springfield reading, the plays are being directed and performed by a host of local theater participants.  One play will be performed by members of the Springfield Southeast High School drama club.

The event is being presented in partnership with the Springfield, Illinois Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America group and the UIS Students Demand Action group.  Before and after the staged readings, audience members can visit informational tables to learn about these organizations and other community initiatives in support of actions to reduce gun violence.

All are welcome to attend. The program consists of six bold short plays by six remarkable young writers who were selected by a committee of America's most lauded professional playwrights. These plays address the many angles and lenses through which we see gun violence at work in America: in classrooms, in neighborhoods, and in families. Patrons are advised that the subject matter includes discussions - but not graphic depictions - of many forms of gun violence, including school shootings, officer-involved shootings, suicide, and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community.

For more information about ENOUGH! and the Nationwide Reading, visit https://www.enoughplays.com/reading.