Mentally Ill / Gun Free by Jessie Salsbury

(10 minute play) - A woman who lost her only child to a school shooting years before purposely submits herself to situations that will trigger her PTSD, as those are the times that she remembers her daughter the clearest.
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Mentally Ill / Gun Free

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  • Emily Hageman:
    8 Oct. 2018
    “ This is an absolutely truly deeply remarkable play. Wow. I am absolutely blown away by this piece. This is so gorgeously felt, so fantastically rendered, and it hurts, it hurts SO MUCH to read and to think about that I can hardly stand it, but I am so grateful for Salsbury and her immense courage to grab that pain and pull it into the front of my heart. The best theatre incites action and all I can think at the end of this play is that this must stop, it must stop now, no more inevitability. Thank you, Salsbury. ”
  • Ricardo Soltero-Brown:
    19 Feb. 2018
    “ We owe so much to the parents of slaughtered children. We owe more to the children, that's the whole point that the mother in Salsbury's play is really making. She, the character, the woman, the mother of a child murdered in a school shooting, has sacrificed and she should be heard. It is ridiculous and gross and tragic and absurd that this character has found a way to connect and connect and connect with school after school after school. The dialogue here with a mother and, wouldn't you know it, a police officer is devastating. ”
  • Greg Burdick:
    18 Feb. 2018
    “ Salsbury’s intense play about the devastating ripple effects of gun violence inside schools will sit uneasily on your chest long after you read it. A heavy, lingering weight. The mother painted in this piece feels like a grown version of the young girl in her “Route 84 House Fire:” broken, hollow, numb. Which you should also read. Now. This author has a genuine gift for ratcheting tension and suspense, and I can’t wait to survey more of her work. ”

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    Loft ensemble - LA
    ,
    2018