26 Pebbles

This past Friday night I got to see the new play “26 Pebbles”. It was performed by the students of Parkland High School. It was wonderful.  Parkland was chosen as one of the few high schools in the nation that was allowed to produce this play. They did a marvelous job.

Spoiler alert: the play is no longer being performed here in the Lehigh Valley. If you live in an area where it may be performed soon, there are minimal spoilers ahead.

The play is about the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, in Newtown, CT, eleven days before Christmas in 2012.  I’m sure you remember this one, even though school shootings have become commonplace. Twenty first graders and six teachers lost their lives that day. The shooter and his mother also died that same day.

I didn’t know what to expect from the play. Was it going to be terribly sad (tissues were ready)? Was it going to be violent?  Was it going to be political?  It was sad, but gave a message of hope.  The violence itself was handled appropriately in that we did not see the shootings.  It was not political at all.

The characters in the play were mostly people who helped in the aftermath and the parents of surviving children.  The scenes went from a few weeks before the shooting to six months after. Again, it was not political. It showed the anti-gun and pro-gun sides. It showed the press as intrusive monsters and as people affected by doing a hard but necessary job.  It showed the shooter as both evil and as a product of his life with mental illness.

The students who played these characters were amazing. The preparation for performing in this play involved an immersion into the shooting itself. They did projects to learn the stories of the victims. They had Skype conversations with students who survived and with parents. They met with grief counselors to better understand the process.  As always, Parkland High School goes the extra mile.

The play is no longer being performed at Parkland. If you saw it, I hope you agree with my post. If you missed it, it’s your loss.

I’ll close with the overarching message of the play: We are love. We are Newtown.