Columbus’s newest theatre company, The Sound Company, is thrilled to announce the opening of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries, running May 5 – 7, 2022 at the Columbus Performing Art Center’s Van Fleet Theater.
In this darkly humorous and unconventional love story, Doug and Kayleen navigate friendship, heartbreak, and an onslaught of physical and emotional injuries. The play follows them from accident-prone children to self-destructive adults while exploring how seen and unseen trauma shapes their relationship.
“We are coming out of a time right now with Covid-19 and lockdowns and distancing measures where we are all a little bit traumatized in very unique and individual ways. We are emerging from an experience where it was literally deadly to be too physically close to another person,” says director Sean Ryan Naughton, “Gruesome Playground Injuries, and this production, is really interested in how these two characters are learning to be close to one another in so many ways that, I think, resonate with what we are collectively going through as a community, as a society even, as we relearn how to be together.”
After each performance, the creative team will host a brief peer-to-peer community conversation with the help of the Outreach & Engagement Team at OSU STAR Trauma Recovery Center to talk about how we can effectively relate, listen, and take care of one another in moments of crisis.
Local educators get in free
Columbus-area K-12 public school educators will receive free admission to all performances.
“We made this decision because teachers are on the frontlines of childhood trauma,” says performer Jess Hughes, “When young people bring their experiences of trauma into school systems, it interferes with their ability to learn and relate to their classmates. We hope that teachers leave with a few tools to take care of students and that all audience members are inspired to prevent and counter the effects that trauma has on individuals and communities.”
The play will be directed by Sean Ryan Naughton and star Connor Graham as Doug and Jess Hughes as Kayleen. The rest of the production team is made of up current undergraduate and graduate students from The Ohio State University, including Chloe Garrett (assistant director), Skylar Kyser (stage manager), Ladini Wallace (set designer), Yasmine Kashubeck (lighting designer), Katie Harvey (costume designer), and Branden Graves (technical director). The production is funded in part through a grant from The Ohio State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Please note: Gruesome Playground Injuries contains references to physical and emotional abuse and sexual assault; sexual content; self-harm; misogyny and sexism; and depictions of violence.
Tickets: $16 regular admission, $12 student admission, free admission for k-12 educators.
Columbus Performing Art Center’s Van Fleet Theater
549 Franklin Ave
Columbus, OH 43215
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