Caridad Svich : Gun Violence Takes Center Stage
By Bureen Ruffin
“
[ The idea that a woman with a gun is a woman with power ]. . . is a trope which privileges a masculine ideal . — Caridad Svich
“ I ’ m gonna go knock on her door – knock-knock-knock — and when she opens it … I am gonna walk up to her and I ’ m gonna put the barrel of this revolver right up against her skull … I am . I am gonna do that and then I ’ m gonna smile at her , smile and lean in real close , all up in her face and I ’ ll whisper , ‘ Was it worth it , CeeCee …’ right before I blow her fucking head off .” — excerpt from “ Cecelia ,” a play by Neil LaBute , featured in 24 Gun Control Plays .
Guns are a cultural artifact , writ large . They have become a part of our collective American consciousness almost without notice , a fact that makes the debates over the role of guns in our society difficult to navigate and the issue of gun violence particularly murky . Even so , the troubling normalcy
of mass shootings at schools and on college campuses , shootings involving the police , and the polarizing debates over gun control simply underscore our collective responsibility to deal with America ’ s gun problem .
In 2013 ,
Caridad Svich , the 2012 Obie Award winning playwright , and fellow dramaturg Zac Kline , launched the Gun Control Theatre Action ( GCTA ) through their
NoPassport Alliance . GCTA was set to coincide with the March On Washington for Gun Control , which came on the heels of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut , the deadliest school shooting in U . S . history . The incident , which left 20 children between the ages of six and seven dead , reignited the gun control debate in the United States .
The goal of the GCTA was to create a space for dialogue and healing through art . Dramatists and poets were asked to submit short plays that would be presented at Georgetown University ’ s Gonda Theatre in Washington D . C . Shortly after the Newtown shooting , a friend and fellow playwright asked Svich if she was planning to write a play addressing gun control . Svich admits to initially feeling a sense of distress and despondency about how theatre might address the issue , but felt it was urgent to speak out , especially since calls for gun control seemed to have fallen on deaf ears . “ The GCTA was a kind of turning point ,” says Svich , when I met with her to talk about her work relating to gun violence and social activism , “ because the laws didn ’ t change [ after the Sandy Hook shooting ].”
The new plays took on the issue of gun control and gun violence fearlessly and unflinchingly , asking audiences to witness , reflect , and think critically about their own feelings and beliefs on the culture of guns in the United States . The short works from the GCTA were later collected in the book
24 Gun Control Plays , edited by Kline and Svich and published in 2013 by NoPassport Press , offering readers the opportunity to thoughtfully consider multiple viewpoints on the gun control debate .
Svich , a self-proclaimed “ hybrid Latina ” who is bilingual , was born in the United States to Cuban-Argentine- Spanish-Croatian parents . The intersection of her American birth and cross-cultural heritage coupled with her nomadic childhood informs her work . She has a builtin outsider lens of sorts that allows her to see things from different perspectives and naturally engage with diverse voices and experiences . It also seems to have fostered a deep connection with voices and experiences that have been othered . Even as a high school student , writing her first plays , her artistic eye sought to illuminate themes of marginalization , human relationships , and reflections of what was going on at the street-level , so to speak , of society .
57 OF NOTE