By Megan Jicha
Surrounded by complete darkness, a light appears. Five bodies lay on the floor of a school cafeteria. It’s a dismal sight for anyone to see.
This is the opening scene in William Mastrosimone’s play, “Bang Bang You’re Dead,” Northeastern Theatre’s first summer production in more than 20 years.
Although just a scene in a play in this case, it is all too often a scene in reality.
“We were deciding on choosing ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’ as the summer production before the shooting at Virginia Tech occurred, but once they did we knew we had to do this play,” said Thomas Lamanna, the student director.
“Bang Bang You’re Dead,” focuses on a teenage boy, Josh, who shoots his parents and five peers and is then haunted by his victims, forcing him to come to terms with his actions.
Mastrosimone’s author’s notes explain why he wrote the play: “About a month after [the shootings] in Jonesboro, and a week after Springfield, [after] one of my children came home from school and casually mentioned that, upon entering one of his classes, he and other students saw that some anonymous person had written on the blackboard: ‘I’m going to kill everyone in this class. And the teacher, too.'”
Both Mastrosimone and the actors and crew of Northeastern’s production said this play and other art forms can help people address and deal with the issue of school and teenage violence.
“The arts are a great way to cover issues, there are tons that need to be addressed,” said Lamanna, a junior theatre major. “But the arts for entertainment purposes is also important as well.”
Beyond acts of violence, bullying is also a major topic of the play, said Elisabeth Stenger, who played Katie, one of the deceased.
“Bullying and a lack of outlets that are available to voice sadness or anger or frustration [are major issues in America],” said Stenger, a junior theatre major. “I feel the topic of bullying is universal; everyone is affected by it in one way or another.”
Although school and teenage violence and bullying are universal problems, Matthew Gass, who played Actor 1, said it may be more of an issue in America than in other countries.
“I’m originally from the UK, and I noticed a real culture change when I came here when it came to violence in schools,” Gass said. “It might have just been that I was in DC the year after the sniper, but there was definitely a greater sense of paranoia.”
But no matter where teen or school violence takes place, it is hard to pinpoint the reason behind it, said Michael Underhill, who played Josh.
“It is an issue here because of the culture, media influences and many other things, but it cannot be pinned down to one thing,” he said. “These tragedies are the culmination of many factors weighing down on someone at the same time.”
However, many hope it is an issue that people can help others confront.
“If someone feels like everyone ignores them and they have to resort to violence, it’s not only that individuals fault for not communicating their feelings before resorting to violence, but those around him or her for not noticing how the person feels, and ignoring him or her in the first place,” said Ian Muller, who played Actor 2. “If people were to communicate more and be more empathetic to each other, these situations would occur far less frequently.”
Lamanna also wrote in his director’s notes that when dealing with this social problem, communication is key.
“The most important thing I’ve learned from working on ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’ is how much people talk at each other and how little people listen,” he wrote. “If we spent more time with our mouths closed and our ears and eyes open I think the world would become a safer place. It isn’t our fault the world is the way it is, but it is our problem and there is work to be done.”
