Friday, May 11, 2001 | 9:16 a.m.
"Broken Globes," a timely play that deals with youth violence and other issues involving high school students, is wrapping up a brief run at the Black Box Theater on the Cheyenne campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada.
The production, which began last weekend, ends Sunday. It is produced by SPACE (the Society for the Preservation of Art, Culture and the Environment).
The play was written by Robert Barossi, a senior theater student at UNLV. Barossi said he finished it shortly before the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
Although the play was written before the shootings, it deals with issues raised by the event. It follows four main characters, students stuck in detention, as a means of presenting the issues.
"After Columbine, I knew some really bad things were going on in the high schools," Barossi, 24, said. "This issue, the theme, I felt needed to be put out there.
"I based the script on most of my own experiences and the things that I saw going on in high school, with my friends and parents," the Massachusetts native said. "Then Columbine happened, and it made me stay away from the play a little while. People are very touchy about the subject."
Barossi said he hopes audiences will come away from the play with a better understanding of why such horrible things are happening in schools around the country.
"I would like it to be (produced) in high schools, and afterwards students and teachers would have a discussion about the things in the play," he said.
Director Willene Wadkins describes the 70-minute play as a "kind of darkly funny, drama-tragedy," though it is not recommended for anyone under age 12 because of its adult language and discussions about adult situations.
Wadkins said she first read the play 10 months ago.
"I thought this was a play that needed to be done," Wadkins said. "People have voiced concern (that the play) would make people nervous. But it shows an end result, and doesn't glorify the shootings. It poses some possible answers as to why a teenager may take that line of avenue that is so desperate."
She said most teenagers who see the play say, "It's exactly like that for us."
Wadkins said, "The good thing about theater is that when a group of people are watching live interaction they are drawn further in the story than they are when watching a movie.
"(Watching a play) may be so intense that it can be a changing experience for a person, and if we can touch one person's mind about doing the wrong thing, then (the play) is successful."
Wadkins said the basic message of the play is about understanding.
"If we can understand why teenagers are behaving the way they are, maybe we can help them."
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