In Partnership with Broadway on Demand, Playscripts and The Dramatists Guild of America, Announce Seven Winning Plays, their 2020 Digital Premiere, and a Nationwide Reading.
New York, NY, October 15, 2020 – #ENOUGH is proud to announce the selection of seven plays by teen playwrights chosen by 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, as the winners of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition for middle and high school students.
On December 14, 2020 -- the eight-year remembrance of the shootings at Sandy Hook -- the winning titles will receive their digital premiere on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand and be made available for free for organizations to stage readings locally. #ENOUGH received 184 submissions from 23 states and three countries when it called on teens to write 10-minute plays that confront the issue of gun violence. The seven winners are Adelaide Fisher's Ms. Martin's Malaise, Eislinn Gracen's Guns in Dragonland, Azya Lyons' Togetha, Debkanya Mitra's Malcolm, Olivia Ridley's Ghost Gun, Sarah Schecter's Hullabaloo, and Elizabeth Shannon's Loaded Language. Each winner will receive a digital premiere on Broadway on Demand, have their play published and licensed through Playscripts in Spring 2021, and Guild membership and craft training through the Dramatists Guild's Young Dramatist Initiative. "I was incredibly impressed by the skill, inventiveness, and passion of the young playwrights who contributed works for #ENOUGH," says panelist judge David Henry Hwang, whose work includes M. Butterfly and the 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist musical Soft Power. "The winning plays are entertaining, insightful, and thought-provoking. Collectively, they provide proof that the future -- of our theatre and our nation -- is in good hands." From Dec. 14-20, the plays will receive a national audience with readings viewable for free on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand produced by Alliance Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Orlando Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. #ENOUGH is also making the plays available for free as part of its Nationwide Reading on December 14. Schools, theatres, and community organizations can stage a reading of the plays, either virtually or in-person where possible, and follow that reading with a post-show discussion on gun violence and committing to an action item on gun violence 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 and the Digital Premiere we're allowing every community to create the space and address the impact of gun violence now."