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Gunplay Explores Both Sides of Guns in America at the Coterie

Every year, the Coterie Theatre holds a showcase for students enrolled in their Master Acting classes. This year, the students perform a play by a Kansas City playwright that addresses the hot button political issue of guns in America. By Steve Walker

Kansas City, MO – In 1991, the University of Iowa campus was devastated when an immigrant graduate student shot and killed 5 students and then himself. The Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, literally within earshot of the murders, conducted a nationwide search for a playwright to address the issue of gun violence and selected Kansas City writer Frank Higgins. Higgins's play called Gunplay has been staged all over the country since then, including a production at Shawnee Mission North High School. It was there that the Coterie Theatre's education director, Nancy Marcy, first directed the show. This week, Marcy returns to the material, staging it as a showcase for the Coterie's Master Acting classes of youth ages 11 to 17. Gunplay will be performed Sunday, March 9 at 7 p.m. at the Coterie Theatre, level 1 Crown Center Shops.

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