Here are four reviews posted on the New Play Exchange about my short play THE CELLPHONES OF THE DEAD, based on a school shooting:
“I was there for the first performance (actually, I was in it), just days after the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. Based on actual circumstances, this short play retains its power and poignancy even a decade later. Highly recommended.”
— Kenley Smith
“I first encountered this play a month ago and was grateful to include it in a reading of gun reform plays I produced. I can only imagine the impact this heart-wrenching monologue play would have with a full production. A snapshot, one facet of the impact of gun violence. It has stayed with me since the moment I read it; it will stay with you, too. ”
— Jordan Elizabeth Henry
“Yancey’s unsettling images of a scene after a shooting, that time for a police officer to count and recount the dead, the sounds of ringing cellphones and the calls from love ones..it’s a heartbreaking read. As a fully-produced solo show, the officer’s narration of the crime scene that’s haunting his memory, with the victims of that memory strewn across the stage, will be a heart-wrenching experience for the audience. Highly recommended short play for your festival on gun control.”
— Asher Wyndham
“Effective and heartwrenching, Yancey takes one of the most chilling details from reports of gun violence (he cites a particular incident, I heard about it in another, which just goes to show how sadly commonplace such events have become) and brings it to life in a piece that speaks for itself … and for the victims of such murders and the helpers who come along and have to face the aftermath. Simple stage directions underline the tragedy of such events. Yancey’s words here are both a moment of silence for victims and a call to arms for we who remain.”
— Matthew Weaver
About the script:
THE CELLPHONES OF THE DEAD
A police officer’s somber monologue: He was at the scene of a mass shooting, and could literally hear the awful news start to spread — as the cellphones of the victims started to ring with desperate messages from their frantic friends.
Also:
* Photos from Minneapolis production, September 2018
* Photos from Roanoke, Virginia, April 2018
* THE CELLPHONES OF THE DEAD included in collection of short plays
dwayneyancey 