#ENOUGH presents The Inciting Incident: Playwriting in a Moment of Change - Panel Discussion on Tue
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2020-06-09

Join #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence and a panel comprised of award-winning and nationally recognized playwrights Idris Goodwin, Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang, Robert Schenkkan, and Karen Zacarías, for a discussion on what it means to be a playwright in this unprecedented moment, and the intersection of playwriting, arts activism, and engaging the next generation.

Our series takes its name from Idris Goodwin’s column for the American Theatre website at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, Goodwin grappled with what it means to be a playwright right now, writing:

“[T]his ain’t the intermission. It’s the show. On this stage, in this world, we, the men and women who are merely players, in our various roles, are waking daily in different plays all together. This is the moment where everything changes. We are in the inciting incident.”

In our conversation we will discuss...

What does it mean to create in a moment of change?
How can playwriting and live theatre be an agent of change?
And how do we encourage the next generation to embrace activism through making art, especially through the theatre?
ABOUT #ENOUGH: PLAYS TO END GUN VIOLENCE

#ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence puts America's young people at the center of the conversation on gun violence through the transformative power of storytelling. Part one of the project is a playwriting competition for middle and high school students (grades 6-12) to write and submit 10-minute plays on the topic of gun violence by June 20, 2020. The top plays will be selected by playwrights Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan, and Karen Zacarías, and #ENOUGH culminates in an evening of simultaneous staged readings across the country of these plays on December 14, 2020 - the 8th anniversary of Sandy Hook.

To date over 100 plays have been submitted with over 40 readings confirmed for Dec 14, including readings at partner theatres across the country, including Goodman Theatre, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alliance Theatre, and Atlantic Theatre, among others.

For more information: www.enoughplays.com

For more information on how to submit a play by June 20th: www.enoughplays.com/writing

Moderator:

Michael Cotey (Producer, #ENOUGH)