![\"CoHoProductions_Season21_TheGunShow_VinShambry_creditShawnLee\"](\"https:\/\/cohoproductions.org\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/CoHoProductions_Season21_TheGunShow_VinShambry_creditShawnLee-200x300.jpg\")
CoHo Productions presents<\/p>\nCoHo Productions presents<\/p>\n
Photo by Owen Carey<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Playwright E.M. Lewis sits with the audience while actor Vin Shambry shares her stories \u2013 just five gun stories in a country full of gun stories.<\/p>\n Her words. His voice. Our story.<\/strong><\/p>\n She grew up in rural Oregon, where everyone has guns. She learned to shoot on a date. She worked at Jackson\u2019s Bookstore during an armed robbery, and once encountered a threatening cop in New York. And then there\u2019s the fifth story: the one that doesn\u2019t let go, the story that<\/strong> triggered this show.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Gun Show <\/em>takes aim at America\u2019s most dangerous past-time with brutal honesty and poignant humor. Leaning neither right nor left<\/strong>, it jumps into the middle of the gun control debate and asks \u201cCan we have a conversation about this?\u201d<\/p>\n Gun Talks will follow each performance. <\/strong>Audience members may share their own gun stories together with the artists and community members in a moderated conversation about issues raised in the production, including safety, violence, control and personal gun stories.<\/p>\n As part of The Gun Show<\/strong><\/em>, we believe in engaging young people in this critical conversation. To that end, every city we visit we will bring the production into local high schools free of charge as well as stops at colleges and universities. Young people have a unique and powerful perspective on guns in America, and we want to ensure they have the opportunity to speak and be heard.<\/p>\n July 1, 2017:\u00a0Artists Repertory Theatre<\/a><\/strong>, Portland, OR<\/p>\n July 6-16, 2017:\u00a0Logan Festival of Solo Performance<\/a><\/strong>; 1st Stage Theatre, Tysons, VA<\/p>\n August 4-28, 2017: Edinburgh Fringe Festival<\/a><\/strong>, presented by theSpace UK at SpaceTriplex Studio Theatre, 19 Hill Place, Edinburgh, EH8, UK<\/p>\n December 1-2, 2017<\/strong>: Willamette University Theatre<\/a>,<\/strong> Salem, OR<\/p>\n American Theatre Magazine,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u201c19 Political ‘MUST SEE’ Shows to See This Fall!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Oregon ArtsWatch, <\/strong><\/a>Under The Gun in Ory-Gun by A.L. Adams<\/strong><\/p>\n Portland Monthly\u00a0Magazine<\/strong><\/a>, What Can This Playwright\u2019s Story Say about<\/strong> Guns in America? Interview with E.M. Lewis by Rebecca Jacobson<\/strong><\/p>\n Portland Mercury<\/a> \u2013 Preview by Megan Burbank<\/strong><\/p>\n “It\u2019s about as timely as you can get. And given that Lewis\u2019 solo show will be performed by Vin Shambry, one of the city\u2019s best actors, it\u2019s downright essential.”<\/p>\n Oregon Public Broadcasting, State of Wonder KBOO Radio, Stage & Studio Adventures in Artslandia Oregon ArtsWatch<\/strong><\/a>, The Great American Gun Divide \u2013 Review by<\/strong> Marty Hughley<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026charming, warm, funny, vehement, volcanic, tender, precise \u2026 he serves admirably as mouthpiece for the white, middle-aged playwright, allowing us to see her in these stories, yet he doesn\u2019t banish his own presence, that of a leonine young black man, with a different upbringing but a similar care and concern about the issue\u2026It\u2019s a remarkably committed and affecting performance, intense yet with a quality like a set of shifting transparencies, a convincing illusion pulled off even as he explains the trick to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Broadway World<\/strong>, The Gun Show Challenges Us to have a<\/strong> Reasonable Conversation about a Divisive Issue \u2013 Review by Krista Garver<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThese are personal stories of a woman who has a lot of experience with guns, who understands both their appeal and their danger, and who, because she sees both sides, feels stuck in the middle. She doesn\u2019t ask us to support one side or the other.<\/em><\/p>\n Portland Mercury <\/a>\u2013 Review<\/strong><\/p>\n The post-play discussion portion (\u201cGun Talks\u201d) is a bold move and won\u2019t be a hit with everyone. Audience members spoke up about using guns in the armed forces, having lost loved ones to gun violence and suicide, and having loved ones who were still alive because they had guns for protection. Gun Talks was uncomfortable, but it would be hard to argue that it didn\u2019t enhance the play. Seeing the range of relationships to guns in one small theater changed the effect of what just happened onstage, and required everyone to consider it from a different angle.<\/em><\/p>\n Dennis Sparks Reviews<\/a> “This is, without a doubt, one from the heart and soul. It is not to be ignored. It is not to be trivialized. It is to be heard, digested and solved!”<\/em><\/p>\n Judy Nedry Reviews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “Part one of the play is the five stories; part two brings the audience into the conversation. Thus, every part two is a different experience. There is humor, love, and terror. “<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe Gun Show
\n<\/strong><\/em>by E.M. Lewis
\n<\/strong>Starring Vin Shambry
\n<\/strong>Directed by Shawn Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nABOUT THE PRODUCTION<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"160904-gunshow_0192r6xss\"](\"https:\/\/cohoproductions.org\/old\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160904-gunshow_0192R6xSs.jpeg\")
<\/a>
\nEDUCATION<\/strong><\/h2>\n
“Seeing The Gun Show<\/em> totally opened my eyes to an issue that I had never bothered to think about in more than one light. I saw it three times- once with my friends, once at school with classmates, and once with the general public, and each time, the conversation post show helped me to learn even more about the many ways we in America interact with guns.”<\/h5>\n
– Quinland, Wilson High School Senior<\/h5>\n
\nPAST TOUR DATES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nREAD FEATURE STORIES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>“Guns are everywhere. If the left wing is trying to take them all, as some on the right assume, they have their work cut out for them. Playwright E.M. Lewis is relatively quick to clarify that that\u2019s not her objective. Hailing from the rural \u201cOrygun\u201d town Monitor (just east of Woodburn), she\u2019s had an intimate long-term relationship with the gun as an implement of recreation and protection as well as a tool of threat and disaster\u2014and she\u2019s penned a script comprised of five true gun stories from her life that cover as many sides of the issue.”<\/p>\n
\nLISTEN TO RADIO COVERAGE<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/strong><\/a>(<\/strong>Interview with E.M.<\/strong> Lewis and Vin Shambry)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/a>(<\/strong>Interview with E.M. Lewis and Vin<\/strong> Shambry)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/a>(<\/strong>Podcast Interview with E.M. Lewis, Vin <\/strong>Shambry & Susannah Mars)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nRAVE REVIEWS<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>E.M. Lewis <\/a><\/strong>(Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, librettist, and teacher of playwriting. She was a finalist for the 2014 Shakespeare\u2019s Sister Fellowship. She received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University in 2010-2011, and a fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission in 2012. She won the ATCA\/Steinberg Award for her play \u201cSong of Extinction,\u201d which also received the Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding Writing of a World Premiere Play from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. She won the Primus Prize for her play \u201cHeads.\u201d Her work has been produced around the world, and is published by Samuel French.<\/p>\n