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A Double Feature of Two One Act Plays performed back to back on the same evening. Two Plays, Two Directors - Lord of the Flies (directed by SIYT Artistic Director Jonathan Salt) presented as the first act with Bang! Bang! You're Dead directed by SIYT's Founder Member Tyler Mortimer. Tyler cut his directorial teeth as Jonathan's Assistant Director of Vision. Performed in the Black Theatre, Burgess Hall St. Ives in March 2010. "Bang Bang You're Dead" is a one act play written by William Mastrosimone to raise awareness of school violence and its causes. The plot focuses on a high school student who murders his parents and five classmates. The play was performed over 15,000 times in the first three years after its publication. |
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Bang Bang You're Dead was written in the wake of three school shootings: Thurston High School (Springfield, Oregon) in May 1998, Heath High School (Paducah, Kentucky) in December 1997, and Westside Middle School (Jonesboro, Arkansa) in March 1998. The names of the cities in which these shootings took place are echoed multiple times within the script. The tragedy most significant to the play was the the shooting at Thurston High School. The play, based strongly on the events that surrounded this particular school shooting, premiered at Thurston. It was performed by Thurston students, some of whom had been wounded in the shooting by Kip Kinkel. Mastrosimone wrote the first draft while troubled by a recent event at his son's school, in which an anonymous classmate of his son wrote a message on a chalkboard, threatening to kill his classmates and his teacher. The premier of Bang, Bang, You're Dead! was met with some criticism and controversy as well as praise and even endorsement. Some locals were hostile towards the production at first, finding the title to be “irreverent” towards those affected by the recent shooting. Many thought that Mastrosimone was using the recent tragedies to “cash in” and make a profit from the play, unaware that Mastrosimone would be collecting no royalties from performances (the piece is available for free download and performance without royalty - one reason it's been performed so often). The principle of Thurston High School received many calls “mostly hostile and frequently 'from people who don't know anything about it' ”. Bang, Bang,You're Dead!, was immediately endorsed by the Ribbon of Promise, a group dedicated to nonviolence in schools, formed in Springfield after the shooting. According to Mastrosimone, it “is a drama to be performed by kids, for kids” for free. |
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| William Mastrosimone (born August 19, 1947) is an American playwright and screenwriter from Trenton, New Jersey. His plays include The Woolgather, Extremities, Shivaree and Cat's Paw. He also wrote Bang Bang You're Dead, which can be downloaded from the Internet and performed by students for free. Other plays include The Afghan Women and Nanawatai, upon which the film The Beast of War is based. Two recent plays are Sleepwalk, a story again focusing on the traumas of modern teenage life, and Dirty Business, a play about a party girl caught between the mafia and the newly elected President of the United States. His screenwriting credits include Into the West and the adaptation of his play Extremities. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Bang, Bang You're Dead and was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy for Into the West and The Burning Season. | |
| Related Web Sites, Articles and Media Links | |
| Hall's Double Helpings - Hunts Post - 03 March 2010 | |
