 "Columbinus," presented Feb. 26-March 1 under the direction of Chris
Gray, explored the lives of high school students from different
social strata. While not a simple retelling of the events that
devastated Columbine High School in 1999, the play looks
microscopically into how such an event could have occurred. The
frightening conclusion: What happened at Columbine could happen
anywhere … and it's not necessarily the stereotypical
heavy-metal-listening, head-banging recluse who pulls the trigger.
At the outset, the audience meets eight cast members portraying
eight different levels of the high school hierarchy: Faith, the
Bible-toting good girl, portrayed in the LC production by Marjorie
White; Perfect, the popular, pretty girl who seems to have it all,
played by Briana Trimble; AP, the academic whiz kid, portrayed by
Josh Dobkins; Prep, the cool, Abercrombie-wearing,
gets-along-with-everyone type of guy, played by Charles Garmon;
Jock, the passionate sports star who views everything as a
competition, played by John Anderson Jr.; Freak, the student in the
corner who's "not quite right," portrayed by Zach Williams; Rebel,
the cutter who disregards the rules of high school society,
portrayed by Tinesheia Howard; and Loner, the student no one really
knows, nor wants to, portrayed by Pierre Phipps.
The audience quickly learns how these eight view one another,
and, for the most part, each student forms an opinion of the others
based on the stereotype, not the actual person. For example,
Perfect, so says the others, has a seemingly ideal, stress-free
life. Why wouldn't she? She's the epitome of what every high school
student wants to be -- good-looking with an endless list of friends.
And Jock is a sports hero, relishing in the adulation from the high
school community for his athletic deeds.
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The audience learns, though, that beyond the stereotypes live
real teens with real teenage problems. Remember Perfect, whose life
couldn't be any better? She's raped and becomes pregnant. Certainly
not idyllic. Faith questions God, Prep is busy hiding his
homosexuality, and AP collapses under the academic pressure. In
short, the play's message here is that it's every teen, not just
those on the fringe of high school civilization, who has problems,
and such problems magnify in the cocoon known as high school.
Eventually, Freak and Loner morph into Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold, the real Columbine shooters, and take over the school. We
all know the events that followed in those hallways and classrooms:
Harris and Klebold claimed 13 victims before ending their own
lives.
But to truly understand what this play represents, the audience
must look beyond the murderous rampage of two out-of-touch teens
such as Harris and Klebold. Would it be such a stretch to imagine
Perfect, dealing with the emotional trauma of rape and impending
parenthood, picking up a gun out of frustration? And could AP "lose
it" after years of nothing but hard-core studying? Certainly such
hypotheticals are conceivable, and that's the point. Sure, in
Columbine's case the killers fit the mold of what killers should be:
castaways in trench coats lashing out at the people who ignored them
and made them feel inferior. But, given the right (or wrong)
circumstances, the person who snaps next time might just be the prom
queen.
[Text from file received from Tom
Baer] |
