←Recommendations of american kids

A powerful play that goes straight to the heart of todays world for the children of America. A reality that only increases with each passing day. May this spread throughout our nation as it's an excellent vehicle to help create a change. Fantastic work.

Setting this play about a shooting survivor on July fourth with the fireworks is chilling and shiver inducing and nauseating. The subtext in this play is so rich and stunning and my heart was just wrenched out of my chest during these short ten pages. In a moment Emily Kaczmarek packs an emotional PUNCH and tells such a vital story about what our country is coming to for so many young people. This is an important play written in a masterful, delicate, and sensitive way. Please do yourself a favor and read this now. It's not getting any less relevant.

A play like this forces us to remember not just those lost to school shootings, but also survivors. Their trauma lasts forever, it changes families, effects how they relate to others in the community. In this play, a play that no one should have to write, wakes us up, makes us wonder about the future -- innocence/childhood/adolesence marked by gun violence, death, and evil. If children are America's future, then many of them will be traumatized just like Jordan. A powerful play that's a smart choice for a festival on gun control.

Emily Kaczmarek has created a short so tender, that it will rip your heart out with every word. Reading "american kids" and knowing that another shooting is eminent makes me sick to my stomach, but I am thankful for Kaczmarek's beautiful words and characters that gives a much needed voice to the victims of these heinous events.

This is a safe space-- you will find only tenderness and patience here. A lovely short that shows the hurt and the healing after tragedy. A powerful scene for two actors looking to dive headfirst into the grit of the moment. A great play for any theatre looking to produce through Protest Plays.

What a stunning short play. Kaczmarek dives deep into one aspect of a complex, heartbreaking world -- the disorienting, impossible world of those who have survived violence. Charlie and Jordan are doing the best they can, and they're doing it together. This play is full of hope, gentleness, and the fierceness of two characters who are choosing to say Yes to life, moment to moment as the fireworks explode outside. Excellent character study for two actors of any gender.

This is such a lovely and simple script. Unfolding beautifully!