WESTERN SKIES - April 23, 2005

*** COLUMBINUS ***

ERIC WHITNEY: April twentieth was the sixth anniversary of an event forever etched into the consciousness of Littleton, Colorado and the nation. KUNC's Brian Larson reports that a new stage production is turning the tragedy at Columbine High School into a theatrical discussion aimed at shedding new light on the fear, frustrations and loneliness of adolescent life.

BRIAN LARSON: The motto of Columbine High School is: "Through these halls pass the finest kids in America." It's a statement that perhaps, could have been applied to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at one time.

Harris played soccer and wanted to be a Marine. Klebold was a part of the sound crew in the school's drama department. But what factors can turn a so-called "normal" pair of teenagers into pathological killers?

P.J. PAPARELLI: It's not about glorifying what they did it's about trying to understand what they did and why they did it to the degree that we can.

LARSON: P.J. Paparelli is the founder and Artistic Director of The United States Theatre Project based in Washington D.C. The desire of his 2002 collaborative is to create plays as a means to effect societal change.

The group's inaugural effort is Columbinus.

PAPARELLI: We knew about school shootings of course but they weren't a part of the consciousness of adolescents. Only during the nineties and in sort of tipping into the two-thousands was this something that was a regular occurrence. So we wanted to ask the question "Why? Why did this happen?"

LARSON: Columbinus, which is Latin for "dove-like," explores the Columbine shootings from the universal to the specific. Merging the stories and experiences of adolescent life collected from teens around the country in Act One - with the documented facts leading up to and the day of April twentieth in Act Two.

Though nameless, the play's eight characters are identified through their narratives. It's not until the end of Act One, when two, very familiar identities emerge. Twenty-five year-old Karl Miller portrays Eric Harris.

KARL MILLER: I think less about the fact that I'm playing somebody who actually lived more than the fact I'm playing somebody who actually lived and had very real contact with a lot of people who are still living, that he was a part of this community and that he left victims and family members and so forth.

LARSON: Imitating the "real-life" events of Columbine on stage before an audience, especially to one directly involved - is a daunting and controversial endeavor. That's why P.J. Paparelli had the first act of Columbinus previewed, and the second act read before a select Colorado audience last summer.

PAPARELLI: There's a lot of fear and a lot of apathy too, it's like do we want to go back there again? Do we want to talk about it again? But clearly the people are interested in talking to us in Littleton about it, wanted to process it, the teenagers wanted to talk about it. Its certainly not something that's gonna go away nor something indigenous to Littleton.

LARSON: That fact that Littleton is simply another community in a growing list, that includes Paducah, Jonesboro, and most recently Red Lake, doesn't lessen its significance for cast member Karl Miller.

MILLER: The hardest scene for me as an actor is when were reenacting the library.

LARSON: Witnesses and survivors recount their experience while the two gunmen stand with their back to the audience. Instead of gunshots, they pound a giant blackboard with their fists.

PAPARELLI: It's really hard to go through all of those testimonies and all of those tears every night and having to hit this blackboard every time knowing that, even though this is a symbolic theatrical thing, its, you know, something like this really happened.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: And they both fired over and over, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. God this is so much fun! I've been waiting my whole life for this.

MILLER: And I think it comes across as more methodical and cold hearted than the real events which are very slapdash and crazy and improvisational and sloppy - and savage.

LARSON: What do you hope audiences take away from this production when they come see it?

PAPARELLI: I don't want people to believe that it's the kind of theatre that you just go and you sit and enjoy or its kind of thought provoking and than you go home and have a bagel, it's the type of theatre that forces you to talk. Ask questions, cause it does not provide any answers. It does not wrap up cleanly at the end.

LARSON: P.J. Paparelli's play, Columbinus wrapped up its world premier in Silver Spring, Maryland earlier this month. It opens in Juneau, Alaska on May tenth. He hopes to bring the show to Denver sometime in August.

There are no classes at Columbine High School on April twentieth, in honor of the sixth anniversary of the shooting rampage that claimed the lives of one teacher, twelve students and the two gunmen.

For Western Skies, I'm Brian Larson.