Brief:

"Title of the play": A student-written play that relives and depicts responses, riots, and rebellions throughout the world. This play draws from common themes of fear, hardship, pride, and war throughout history.  

Darla, the evening time bartender, recites a flashback monologue portraying her experience during the Orlando Nightclub shootings. On June 12, 2016, there was a mass shooting in which a man gunned down 49 people, injuring 53 people at a gay nightclub. The character Darla was another patron in the nightclub at the night of the shooting and describes her point of view during the traumatizing event. During the monologue, Darla reimagines her feelings of guilt, fear, hopelessness, and sorrow. It is relevant to revisit this event through the perspective of a victim as the Orlando shootings are another occurrence of history repeating it's. Almost 50 years before this shooting was the Stonewall raids and riots, another event where the LGBTQIAP+ community was violently targeted. These are only a couple of examples where the LBTQIAP+ community has been discriminated against and is an issue that is extremely prevalent today. The world is still fighting the fight to accept those for who they are and obtain equal rights for everyone.

Monologue:

I remember hearing the sirens down the road. Shivers trickled down my neck. My body felt like it was struck by lighting, stiff and petrified. Down that road lived the only place I felt accepted. Down the road was supposed to be my home. But slowly my home was starting to feel just like a house. As if the movers came right in and snatched the rug from beneath me. It felt like I was waiting under that bar counter for hours. I could hear there growling low voices pounding on the doors. The overwhelming red and blue lights were flashing against the walls. It wouldn't be the first time they forced their way into our lives just to strip the one ounce of humanity we had left. I was completely lost on what would happen next but I knew what was yet to come wasn't going to be pretty. I felt guilty thinking about my safety when I knew others would have it worse. But my short shorts and sequin top made me a key target. I remember looking over my shoulder to see him, small and frail, scared out of his mind. He wasn't going to be safe once they came in. Just with one twirl of his skirt, he was at risk. But as soon as they broke through those doors my body thought faster than my heart did. In the corner of my eye, I saw a hiding place behind the curtains. He was looking at me, yearning for some sort of direction but there wasn't time, there wasn't enough space for the both of us. At that moment I turned my head away as if I never saw him. I sat waiting under the curtain, my view obstructed but the sounds amplified. The screams, the crying, the hitting, the yelling was all too much. To this day I lie awake with no sight, awakened by a great deal of fright, hoping that sometime I won't relive that day each night.