Powerful voices echoed in an old church in North Scranton. Where people once worshiped, young adults rehearsed a play about gun violence in schools.
“I don't know who I am. I want to be something I can never be. I try so hard every day. But in the end, I hate myself for what I've become. I sound so pitiful…. I don't know what's wrong with me.”
That’s Michael Hegedus, a recent Scranton High School graduate who portrays a school shooter.
The actors will perform the play “Soda Pop Can: An American High School Story,” on Friday and Saturday at the Space at Olive in Scranton. A reception and forum with community leaders will be held after each show.
REV Theatre Company, based in Philadelphia and New York City, first presented the show with teens from the NEPA Youth Shelter two years ago. REV’s Co-Artistic Director Rudy Caporaso wrote the script about high schoolers living their lives and how an act of violence by one of them changes everyone.
“It was written in a way that was compiled from a lot of research and resource material, which I think I'm actually unhappy to say there's far, far too much of,” he said. “Art, when it can, should indeed have a social conscience…. I'm just hoping to get people together, to have them have an emotional response to an artistic endeavor and to generate a conversation out of that.”
Late afternoon sun streamed through the stained-glass windows of the church. The pews from the church, most recently the Grove Church, are long-gone, providing ample space for the rehearsal.
Josephine Krokus, who graduated from Scranton High last year, recites her lines about hearing gunshots.
“All at once everybody is on their phones texting, and now the fire alarm is going off, and everybody's screaming and crying. And now the sound of those shots is deafening. So I can't think, I can't hear myself think.”
Kelis Perkins, a senior at Scranton High, hopes to start a conversation.
“These situations actually happen. And they might not happen often in Scranton, but they happen everywhere,” she said. “People should understand that.”
Christian Pehanich, a sophomore at West Scranton, hopes to make an impact.
“It gets a good message across to people that we shouldn't be numb to this,” he said. “This is a real tragedy, because people just view it as numbers… No, they're kids who've had lives ahead of them just stripped away, or permanently changed."
The program is supported by the Sondra G. and Morey Myers Charitable Gift Fund, Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Community Project Grant, Scranton Area Community Foundation and Wegmans.
The show will be performed at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the Space at Olive, 541 Wyoming Ave. in Scranton. Admission is free, and donations will be accepted.
