Overview
The collection, Signature in Schools Vol. II, is comprised of the following plays:
IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
Inspired by Leni Riefenstahl’s legendary propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934) which chronicled the Nazi Party rallies and helped to glorify German leader Adolf Hitler, Image is Everything focuses on themes of propaganda, conformity, and personal responsibility. Taking place in the present day, a group of students study the tragic events of the Holocaust. When rumors swirl on the internet about a new student in their school ending in his suicide, the students are forced to face the fact that propaganda didn’t just die with Nazi Germany but is alive and well in America, even in their very own school.
UN-AMERICAN
Set in the present day, two rival high schools are neck-and-neck in the final rounds of a local TV quiz show. As tension escalates between the teams and the game nears its end, answers come in a way that none of the students ever expected – a surprise interrogation conducted by HUAC. The students, now trapped in one of America's darkest eras, are each confronted with critical questions as they must now cope with accusations of being “Un-American.”
REVOLUTION
It’s 2011. The events that would come to be known as the Arab Spring are underway. The Occupy Movement is in its infancy. With the world changing at a rapid pace, a group of young students find themselves grappling to understand the surrounding revolutionary fervor. One student, Patrick, the son of a homeless Iraq War Vet, struggles in quiet desperation with secrets and changes that could prove to be more than he can handle.
HERO WORSHIP
It’s 2013. The U.S. Government is shutdown. High School student Samantha Barnes sneaks onto the Washington Mall to build a monument to her father who committed suicide after fighting in Afghanistan. Her presence on the deserted mall calls up the spirits of soldiers from other American wars. As her fantastical night progresses she also gets a visit from another trespasser on the Mall—Judith who has jumped the barricades of the WWII memorial to honor her father who fought at D-Day. The two women help each other make peace with their fathers.
VENI, VIDI, VICI
When a group of students putting on a play about Imperialism are suddenly left in front of an audience without a script, they have to figure out a way to make up the play as they go causing rifts in the cast and crew that mirror the history they're trying to dramatize.