A group of students gets up in the morning, jumping into the expected cycle of every school day–but today, the school they go to is part of a larger, terrifying cycle of mass shootings. In a series of connected scenes and monologues that occur before, during, and after the event, young people of all stripes piece together what is happening and why. Some students reach out to loved ones, while others help each other through panic. Some imagine their futures–if they live to see them–and some piece together what has happened in the frantic moments afterwards. With fire, humor, and power, Declaration gives students a voice to ask whether the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” can be fulfilled, crouched behind a barricaded classroom door.
Drama. Flexible ensemble of 10-50+ performers. 40-50 minutes (with some flexibility for those needing to compete at 35-minute time limits). Suitable for high school and older (or skilled middle school actors).
Declaration premiered in January 2019 at Beacon Theatre Workshop (Woonsocket, RI). The production joined with others across the country in raising more than five thousand dollars for March For Our Lives, which seeks to end gun violence in our schools.
SynopsisDeclaration explores the befores, durings and afters of a group of students whose school is yet another ground zero for a mass shooting. Through a series of connected scenes and monologues, they’ll try to piece together what’s happened in the frantic moments after, calm themselves with imaginings of what they’ll have accomplished years from now—assuming they make it through the morning—and consider whether hiding in classrooms, closets and bathrooms was what our country’s founders had in mind when they penned the Declaration of Independence’s famous phrase about the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”