2023
LIGHTNING STRIKE
1w or 4w
Gun Violence Type(s): School Shooting
Perspective: Survivor, Youth
Narrative Style: Time Loop / Fragmented Memory​
By Andy Fagan
You're more likely to be struck by lightning than experience a school shooting. Hallie has never been struck by lightning, but she has survived a school shooting, and somehow she must keep on surviving.
SYNOPSIS
HALLIE, age 17, sits alone in a ransacked classroom, recalling her first active shooter drill as a child. At the time, her teacher claimed they were hiding from a bear. Now, years later, she has survived an actual school shooting, but her friend Asa has not responded to her texts. As she clings to the hope that he is still alive, she remembers standing beside Mr. Phipps, who was the first to be shot, and questions her own inaction in the moment.
Weeks pass. The death toll rises. Asa is declared brain-dead and removed from life support. HALLIE, still emotionally trapped in the classroom, struggles with survivor’s guilt and a deep sense of paralysis. Time moves on: at age 27, she graduates college and tries to celebrate, but remains haunted by the massacre. She recounts where her classmates fell, and despite outward progress, she questions whether she is still stuck at seventeen.
By age 31, HALLIE has married, started therapy, and begun writing a memoir. But the news of another school shooting reignites her trauma. The recurrence of tragedy, nearly identical to her own, sends her spiraling into anger and despair. She destroys the classroom again, realizing how little has changed.
At 40, HALLIE watches her seven-year-old son go through his first active shooter drill. Holding the Hydroflask from the shooting, she reflects on how far she’s come—and how much remains with her. Her fear for her son mingles with determination to live a meaningful life in honor of those who didn’t get the chance.
Gorgeously articulated portrait of long-term and generational trauma plus survivor's guilt, with an ending which manages to be both tragic and hopeful.
DAVID HENRY HWANG
Playwright & ENOUGH! panelist
themes & technique
THEMES
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Lifelong Impact of Trauma — HALLIE’s experiences demonstrate how surviving gun violence reshapes memory, identity, and the ability to move forward across decades.
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Failure to Change— The repetition of school shootings—and society’s inadequate response—underscores a sense of hopelessness and normalized crisis.
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Survivor’s Guilt — HALLIE’s fixation on what she didn’t do and those who didn’t survive reveals the emotional weight placed on those left behind.
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Cycles of Innocence and Awareness — Her son’s excitement about “hiding” parallels her own childhood misunderstanding, revealing how innocence is routinely lost and inherited.
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NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
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Chronological monologue across time — The playwright structures HALLIE’s reflections at five key ages, using direct address and minimal staging to illustrate how trauma persists, evolves, and resurfaces throughout a survivor’s life.
"I've never been struck by lightning. Yet I am now what they call a survivor."
Andy Fagan
Lightning Strike
Playwright's Bio
Andy Fagan (he/him, Montana) is a senior at West High School in Billings, Montana. He started writing when he was six years old and never stopped. Ever since, he has spent the vast majority of her free time crafting worlds and stories that he might never write. He has dreamt of being a published author since he was seven, and made a goal to be published before he graduated high school. When he is not attempting to write the next Great American novel, he can be found rewatching Barry, listening to Starkid musicals, and reading books about World War II. He intends to study history and creative writing at the University of Montana in Missoula. Lightning Strike marks Andy's debut as a playwright.
