Feb. 2, 1996
A 14-year-old boy kills a teacher and two students in Washington.

Feb. 19, 1997
A 16-year-old student kills the principal and a student in Alaska.

March 24, 1998
Four girls and a teacher are shot to death during a false alarm at a middle school.

April 24, 1998
A 48-year-old teacher is shot to death during a graduation in Pennsylvania.

High School Shootings Close to TCU
Perkins

By Laura McFarland
Skiff Staff

The events that lead up to and follow a school shooting are only part of a play by Steve McGaw. “Landscape With Stick Figures” opens with Ethan Salisbury being tackled after going on a shooting rampage at his high school and killing five people. Ethan is 15 years old.

“This whole idea of school shootings has been on my mind, as it is on most people’s minds,” McGaw, author of the play, said.

Matt Perkins, a sophomore theater major, plays Ethan.

“I think it’s a play that will hit home with a lot of people because of the subject matter, especially (since) there have been several high school shootings around the nation,” Perkins said. “There’s always some kind of connection to everyone.”

No violence is committed on stage during the production.

“It’s not the actual event,” Perkins said. “It’s what life was like before the shooting and what life was like after.There’s not really any specific moment where you actually see the shooting or you actually deal with the shooting.”

The play focuses on the relationships of the characters, especially that of Ethan with his friends and family.

“Ethan is troubled,” Perkins said. “He doesn’t feel like he belongs. He feels like he’s different from everybody else in high school. He has a horrible relationship with his father and a good relationship with his mother.”

Ethan’s relationship with his mother is the most prevalent and the strongest in the play, Perkins said.

“She’s the only one that he seems to connect with in any way,” Perkins said. “I think his mother is the most crucial relationship in his life, because it’s the only thing that’s been constant. She’s going to love him no matter what.”

Ethan’s mother suffers greatly throughout the play.

“You really feel sorry for his mom,” Perkins said. “Everybody’s going to put the blame on her or his father.”When McGaw started creating Ethan’s character, he said that he didn’t want the audience to walk out at the end believing Ethan was simply evil or crazy.

“I want people to see him as a real person,” McGaw said. “If you don’t have to think of someone as a real person, it diminishes them. I wanted to show that this is someone’s son and someone’s friend.”

There are instances in the play where the audience might even begin to pity Ethan, Perkins said.

“I think there are certain moments in the play where you’re almost going to feel sorry for Ethan, because he’s so troubled, and nobody spots it until these things happen,” Perkins said.

Though Ethan is extremely angry and troubled, Perkins said that Ethan is essentially very weak.

“When he’s talking to his mom, he says how he wishes he was dead, because he doesn’t know how he could put up with the rest of this,” Perkins said. “I think a part of him did wants to die, but I don’t think Ethan could have ever killed himself. He’s not strong enough to do that.”

To prepare himself for the role, Perkins said he researched recent school shootings, reading court transcripts and stories and watching videos about the incidents.

“I was looking at mostly the shooter — mannerisms, the language they use, the music they listen to, the books they read,” he said.

McGaw also researched school shootings when he started to write the play.

“It was interesting, and I was intellectually engaged,” McGaw said. “It was not fun, but it was informative. What struck me, beyond the raw tragedy of it, is how quickly they try to offer an explanation.”

The case that both McGaw and Perkins focused on and modeled the character of Ethan after was that of Kip Kinkle, a 15-year-old student from Thurston High School. Kinkle was convicted of murdering his parents, two students and shooting 26 other schoolmates May 21, 1998.

In addition to Ethan’s relationships, the play also represents the students and people affected by the shooting.

However, in his representation of the shooting’s aftermath, McGaw chose not to feature any of the victims’ parents.

“We all know what loss is, but I wouldn’t presume to try and represent what it’s like for a parent to lose a child,” he said.

The play does not try to place the blame on any one person or factor.

“I don’t know where you would put the blame,” McGaw said. “I think the play just explores a bunch of different avenues. It’s not a play about answers.”

While he isn’t sure how most people will react to the play, Perkins said that he thinks it will make the audience reflect. Regardless of the audience’s reaction, he said that the topic is prevalent to modern day life and needs to be explored.

“It’s hard to say how people will react,” Perkins said. “I just think it will be provocative — it’ll make them think. You’ll have people that think it’s amazing, and you’ll have people who will say this doesn’t really tell (them) anything.”

This is Perkins first lead in a play, but he has been acting since high school. He said he knows that acting is the career he wants to pursue after college.

“I would just really love to stay in theater as long as I possibly can, but I’d kind of like to get my hand in all the different jars,” Perkins said. “I’d like to direct, write a little bit, maybe produce somewhere down the line. Right now, I’m just in love with acting in theater in general just because the magic of live theater is so spectacular. When you share a moment with a house of 50 or 100, that can’t be reproduced on the ‘silver screen.’”

Performances of “Landscape With Stick Figures” will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and April 20 and April 21 at the Fort Worth Theatre. Tickets are $10 a person, with student rates available.

Laura McFarland
l.m.mcfarland@student.tcu.edu