2022
REHEARSAl
2w / 4m
Gun Violence Type(s): School Shooting; Other / Symbolic
Perspective: Black Lives; Family / Sibling
Narrative Style: Chorus / Multi-Voice
By Willa Colleary
Four students at an elite private school and their cult-of-personality history teacher must recount how and why they began the weekly ritual of obsessively performing an archetypal school shooting.
SYNOPSIS
A series of intercut interviews unfolds between an offstage QUESTIONER and five individuals from LaDana Preparatory, an elite private school: four students—GABRIEL, LOURDES, PRINCE, and WILLEM—and one teacher, MS. MURPHY. Through their testimonies, a disturbing truth emerges: the group has been participating in repeated, highly detailed enactments of a school shooting, referred to only as “rehearsal.”
What begins as a seemingly educational or therapeutic exercise during a low-attendance summer session grows into a ritualized simulation. Each participant assumes a fixed role—Gabriel stands guard and is shot, Prince is killed first, Lourdes survives by hiding in a closet, and Willem plays the shooter who ultimately dies by suicide. Ms. Murphy, the architect of the exercise, also performs as the SWAT team, dragging Lourdes to safety. These rehearsals occur multiple times each Friday, complete with notes and adjustments, as if preparing for an inevitable tragedy.
Each character reveals a unique relationship to the routine. Gabriel finds meaning in playing the martyr, imagining himself brave in a real crisis. Prince reflects on the irony of his privileged upbringing and how proximity to violence remains inescapable. Lourdes internalizes the role of survivor with quiet resignation. Willem approaches his part with clinical detachment, describing unsettling dreams and a sense of grim inevitability. Ms. Murphy defends the exercise as a necessary outlet for the students' anxiety, believing it to be both cathartic and protective.
As the interviews progress, questions of ethics, responsibility, and psychological harm emerge. Ms. Murphy insists the roles fell into place naturally and that the students are committed and even comforted by the repetition. When asked why the scenario always ends in death, she offers no alternative: “He does.”
This play is disturbing as hell. So interesting and no answers.
DON ZOLIDIS
Playwright & ENOUGH! panelist
THEMES & TECHNIQUE
THEMES
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Institutional Complicity — Adults meant to protect students instead reinforce fear through control masked as care.
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Ritualization of Violence — The repeated simulations mirror the cycle of school shootings and suggest cultural desensitization.
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Performance and Identity — Roles assigned during rehearsal begin to shape how students see themselves—in death, in bravery, in survival.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
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Interview-style fragmentation — The story unfolds through interwoven, nonlinear testimonies that build an emotional and ethical puzzle.
"No, it makes sense. Someone has to survive or it's just not the same."
Willa Colleary
Rehearsal
Playwright's Bio
Willa Colleary (she/her) is a Los-Angeles based writer. She has attended and supported public schools throughout her education, and is set to graduate from University High School Charter, where she acts as Assistant Creative Director of the Theater Department. Colleary was honored to enroll in the California State Summer School of the Arts (CSSSA) in summer 2021 to refine her skills in various disciplines of writing. She was awarded the California Arts Scholar award for her work with the program. Colleary has visited and been inspired by the performances at Topanga Canyon’s Theatricum Botanicum since she was little, and she is more than ecstatic to be representing their community with REHEARSAL, which she wrote under their tutelage.
