Azuka Theatre, InterAct and the Philadelphia Dramatists Guild Join Nationwide #ENOUGH Premiere to End Gun Violence

Azuka Theatre, InterAct Theatre Company and the Philadelphia Region of the Dramatists Guild of America announce their participation in the Nationwide Reading of the seven winning plays of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition for middle and high school students. On December 14, 2020 -- the 8-year remembrance of the shootings at Sandy Hook -- the winning titles will be performed on Zoom in Philadelphia and at nearly 50 other theatres and schools across the country and abroad.

A panel of nationally-recognized dramatists - Lauren Gunderson, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and Karen Zacarías - selected the plays out of 184 submissions from twenty-three states and three countries in #ENOUGH's call for teens to write 10-minute plays that confront the issue of gun violence.

The plays - all written by high school students - tackle gun violence through different lenses, from the threat of and anxiety over school shootings, police shooting, community violence, race, and gun culture in American history.

#ENOUGH has made the plays available for free to schools, theatres, and community organizations to stage a reading of them, either virtually or in-person where possible, and follow that reading with a post-show discussion on gun violence that's specific to their community.

"We can't talk about gun violence in America only in the aftermath of the most tragic incidents," says Michael Cotey, producer of #ENOUGH, "Through the Nationwide Reading we're allowing every community to create the space and address the impact of gun violence now."

Everyone involved in the Philadelphia reading feels strongly that no matter what else is happening in our country we cannot take our focus off the continuing tragedy of gun violence. For this reason, every penny raised by the sale of tickets to the reading will be donated to CeaseFire PA and Delaware County United for Sensible Gun Policy, one of the first anti-gun violence groups to support the National Reading of #ENOUGH. Tickets are available for a free will donation that will allow people to attend the reading and discussion on December 14th or view it anytime through December 21st.

More details on all seven winning playwrights, including bios and headshots, and their plays, can be found online here. Tickets can be requested at http://azukatheatre.org/hashtag-enough.

About #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence: #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence is a theatre activism campaign launched by Michael Cotey in 2019. #ENOUGH strives to spark critical conversations and incite meaningful action in communities across the country on the issue of gun violence through the creation of new works of theatre by teens. # ENOUGH's mission is to promote playwriting as a tool of 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. enoughplays.com

InterAct Theatre is a theatre for today's world, dedicated to commissioning, developing, and producing new and contemporary plays that explore the social, political, and cultural issues of our time, and to improving the regional climate for new plays. http://www.interacttheatre.org/

Azuka Theatre strengthens the connection and shared humanity among its diverse audiences by giving voice to the people whose stories go unheard. The name Azuka is from the Nigerian word meaning "strength of foundation." https://www.azukatheatre.org/

The Dramatists Guild, a national sponsor of #ENOUGH, is the national, professional membership trade association of theatre writers including playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. The Guild was established for the purpose of aiding dramatists in protecting both the artistic and economic integrity of their work. https://www.dramatistsguild.com/

Delaware County United for Sensible Gun Policy is a grass roots, all-volunteer organization intent on achieving safer communities by preventing gun violence. Our mission is to persuade public and private decision makers at local, state, and national levels to enact and enforce sensible gun policies. http://delcounited.net/

CeaseFirePA is working in communities across Pennsylvania to build support from the ground up for reforms to reduce gun violence, stop the flow of illegal guns into our communities, and keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. https://www.ceasefirepa.org/.

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