←Recommendations of FRIENDS WITH GUNS

This is an extremely well-crafted and deeply engaging play. I connected with the characters and was drawn into this world and the relationships. I think it will leave a lot of readers and audiences facing important questions about their own beliefs and behaviors.

A prescient and important play that flips the script on liberal attitudes towards gun ownership, and becomes a powerful piece about what it is like to be in the skin of a woman. It doesn't take sides as much as it challenges strongly held beliefs, while also being a deeply feminist work that surprised me at every turn. I could not put it down.

Was very lucky to see this play in progress at a Unicorn Theatre reading in Kansas City. Everyone has certain biases and beliefs, and this play invests in confronting them. What if, even in the most 'liberal' mindset, we are closed off to learning and growing our opinions? It is, however, not a one-themed play. Women's self-protection and spousal relationships are also a strong underlying theme that push into the work. Well done and extremely timely.

I love how complex and complicated Walker allows all the characters to be. FRIENDS WITH GUNS deals with character first, and then the issue at hand, which is what I want from every play. Another excellent aspect of the script is the easy comedy and honesty in the dialogue. I'd run to see this in production, highly recommend!

This play was selected for a slot in the 2017-2018 In-Progress New Play Reading Series at Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Our audience was extremely responsive to the challenging perspectives Stephanie presents. It is not often you find a play about such a polarizing issue that can speak truth to both sides in a deeply impactful way. Our audience was also engaged by how surprisingly FUNNY this play is! The musicality of the dialogue and the quick witted humor are both disarming and impactful. This is an important play that will cause you reexamine how you look at guns.

Friends with Guns offers just what a contemporary play should: discomfort for everyone. By turns hilarious and dark, it constantly turns the tables on its characters and its audiences.

Steeped in current issues and timely debates, this poignant and well-crafted play takes you on a journey of real and genuine people in tricky situations. The impact of this work is a thrill, exciting, and surprising. Walker's use of humor makes you comfortable while sudden twists and jolts can trigger and shock you into self-reflection. If you want your audiences talking (isn't that why we go to the theatre?) this is the play to produce - Powerful piece of work that will stick with me for a long time.

So often as a liberal I focus on producing work that I think will convince the "other side" of something to make them less intolerant but sometimes we need plays that help us examine our own intolerance. It's a play that feels so familiar yet completely fresh. A feast for actors and directors.

What happens when your deepest held belief becomes shockingly, suddenly in mortal conflict with your deepest held feelings about another human being? Through this entire play, I kept saying to myself "I would never want to have to confront this situation... but what if I did?" And with her trademark realistic and on-point dialogue, Walker lures you unwittingly until you're in the middle of it--uncomfortable, afraid, and without answers. Bang.

Stephanie's gift of writing wonderfully natural yet passionate dialogue is in full strength with this play. These well-drawn characters deftly pulls the reader into both sides of the highly-charged conversation of gun ownership. It is at turns funny and poignant and harrowing and cringe-inducing. Great roles for good actors. I love this play.