May 8, 2008

Acting Class students perform “Bang Bang You’re Dead”

In light of some recent school shootings, Cowley College theatre director Scott MacLaughlin decided now would be the time for his Acting Class students to perform the play “Bang Bang You’re Dead.”

The play was originally made to show and end violence and teasing between teenagers in schools. The play centers on the lead character Josh, a teenage boy who shoots his parents and five schoolmates, and is then haunted by physical manifestations of his memories of them.

“It’s not about whether guns should be legal or illegal, it’s about the frame of mind of that individual and how they got to that point,” MacLaughlin said.

Bang Bang You're Dead was written in 1998 in the wake of the school massacres that occurred in Paducah, Jonesboro, and Springfield to raise awareness about school violence.

"This was a hard one to do because the students are highly dependent on each other to get the right lines," MacLaughlin said.