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THE LOCKDOWN - a play for teen audiences [more info continued]

Cast
ALICE – the quiet girl who reads the dictionary
DARCY – senior class president, rule hound
GARRETT – friendly surfer dude
JEREMY – computer guru/ black market ring leader
KATARINA – substitute teacher, loses it
LEEANN – princess (chain-smoking, compulsive lying variety)
LEX – another righteous feminist bound for Smith College
LILY – a.k.a., Crazy Lily, can hear Satan (or so she says)
MIA – theatre spaz
MORGAN – retro chick
PIGEON – painfully shy, frog advocate
ROSIE – tough girl from Brooklyn, hates California
SIMONE – wears black, digs Nietzche
SQUID – anti-authority skater punk
VINCE – Jeremy’s “bodyguard” and role-playing junkie

About The Play
I was commissioned by South Coast Repertory to write a play for their Teen Players—their troupe of teenage actors, ranging in age from 13 to 18. I got to meet the thirteen young actors—nine girls, four boys.  I got to watch them in action. And I got to ask them questions, like: what do you want to see one stage?  What roles do you really want to play?  Tired of their usual high school play fare, we explored personalities, topics, and news that were exciting, new, and visceral. This play is the product of working with these excellent, intelligent actors.  And it was a thrill to see them bring it to life. And even more of a thrill to see it play to a crowd of high schoolers.  Finally, they found something they could relate to.

 


ALICE:  It was just a day.  I guess you’d call it average.  Like one of those days when you’re complaining about how unfair the geometry final was and what a pain in the ass that kid Lance is and when you go home and your parents ask how school was, you just shrug your shoulders and turn on the television to watch some stupid rendition of teen life written by some burned out forty-something guy from LA.  It was just...normal.  And then you hear this noise.  I would say gunfire but that’s not what it sounds like because it’s not like it sounds in the movies.  And normal is turned inside out like one of those frogs in biology class.  You don’t know what’s happening but you do know it’s bad and you do know right then and there that it’s going to take years to recover from this.  You’re like: this is traumatic.  I’m experiencing trauma.  And it races through your body like this terrible disease.  Your heart is in your throat and you think you’re going to choke to death if it beats again.