explores how the idea of freedom came to be associated with guns .
In the late 19th century the Wild West imagery made its way into stories , novels , and eventually films . Ironically one of the first superstars of the Wild West was Annie Oakley — a fixture of Buffalo Bill ’ s Wild West Show , known for her sharpshooting skills . Svich and I discussed this persistent trope : the idea that
a woman with a gun is a woman with power . “ It ’ s a trope which privileges a masculine ideal ,” she says . In truth , that idea has no basis in reality . A study cited in a recent article in The Atlantic , “
Having a Gun in the House Doesn ’ t Make a Woman Safer ,” found that “ females are uniquely impacted by the availability of a firearm .” The study also found that “ women with access to firearms become homicide victims at significantly higher rates than men .”
Her approach , which is inherently collaborative , has been refined over time to one that is “ more challenged [ by ]” and “ more awake ” to its environment , she says . This malleability underscores Svich ’ s concern with challenging form . Art that reacts quickly and molds itself with or against whatever it is that is within its view must necessarily be willing to take on different forms and aesthetics . “ Art should be nimble ,” says Svich .
In the last 15 years , Svich ’ s work has come to embody this idea of what she calls “ hyperlinked dramaturgy ”— a kind of “ rapid response ” art that is witnessing and dialoguing with an urgency that parallels the immediacy of day-today life . That creative work , she says , seeks to answer questions such as , “ Who is hurting and why ?” “ How do we connect [ as people ] and why ?” ” How do we alienate each other and why ?” The plays that emerged from the GCTA sought to engage with gun tragedy by considering these questions so important to Svich ’ s work .
The complexity of the gun debate makes it challenging to discuss , especially as it relates to women and gun violence . Svich , who was also a contributor to the GCTA , found several pieces particularly resonant . Playwright Neil Blackadder ’ s piece , “ Dad ’ s Guns ,” investigates how guns became a cultural phenomenon , notably through music and film . Similarly , Ian Rowland ’ s piece , “ Troy Story ,”
Playwrights Gab Cody and Neil LaBute ’ s contributions to 24 Gun Control Plays both tackle the role gender plays in gun violence and the gun control debates . In “ Cecelia ,” Neil LaBute , the well-known writer and director , wrote a play that follows a man , angry and raging about his wife who had recently left their marriage . In a single ranty monologue , the main character at once bemoans and degrades his ex-wife , and at the end , tells the audience exactly how he plans to avenge her leaving him :
with a shot to the head . In Cody ’ s “ Everyday Villainy ,” the source material is autobiographical . In one scene , the three-yearold narrator , her mother , and siblings witness the father character , in a rage , kill the family dog with a shotgun . Later , when the narrator is 21 years old , she learns that her grandmother had been murdered , shot and killed in a domestic dispute , rather than in a car accident as she had always believed .
For Svich , the fact that conversations about gun control and gun violence on both sides of the debate don ’ t include the experience of women speaks to a kind of “ unspoken disregard for the female body ” and its “ dispensability .” Women are being killed at higher rates by guns and those facts are not reported . This disregard is reflected culturally as well . Crime , drama , and thriller films and television shows are often centered on a body — a woman ’ s body — one without agency and one whose death is , for purposes of dramatic television , thrilling .
Svich ’ s own contribution to the GCTA is a piece called “ The Wake .” It is a prayer of sorts for those who have been lost to gun violence . An early stanza reads , “ Today , we say / things will be better / We will learn / All hail a better
58 OF NOTE