This week justArts spoke with Amanda Ehrmann ‘18, the director of Free Play Theatre Cooperative’s play columbinus.

justArts: Why did you choose to direct ‘columbinus’?

Amanda Ehrrman: The writer is from Chicago, and I am from Chicago, and it’s been my favorite play ever since I saw it senior year of high school, and I actually took a gap year so I’m a little older.

Then I came here, and I was talking about it, and no one knew what I was talking about, so I’m like, “Okay, everyone needs to hear this story. I have to put it on if no one else is going to put it on.”

JA: What was the rehearsal process like?

AE: We had rehearsal most days from 7-11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and we had a very busy cast, so lots of them were involved in many different things. We gave them a little bit of homework, so I assigned them two victims each and they had to go and do research about the victims and come back.

Sometimes we would watch videos about Columbine and sometimes we would just do line-throughs or talk about cast bonding, talk about how we are feeling about it, but most of it was just regular rehearsal, blocking, working through character development.

JA: What do you think is the most important message of the show?

AE: The show starts out with the first act on high school archetypes and then Freak and Loner in the second act, who, like, become Eric and Dylan who were the shooters.

I think the main message is that Columbine was no different than any other high school—this could happen anywhere. It’s all rooted in how we treat each other.

There are a lot of internal factors, like how we treat each other, things we can actively do and then things we can do on a national level like school programs for a positive atmosphere and gun laws and things like that.

JA: Was everyone happy with opening night?

AE: I hope so! I was happy with it. Everyone was really nervous, everyone was like, “How are we doing? Who’s there?” Asking a lot of questions, and I was like, ‘You guys are fine.’

I wish we had more time; I think every director wishes they had one more week, but, like, especially since right after the break we had to jump back into it, but like every show, it pulls itself together at the last minute.

JA: Is there one thing you wish the audience would take away from the show?

AE: To just have an open mind and to realize that everyone is going through something and never to jump to conclusions if they snap at you or treat you badly.

That’s kind of like preschool—the golden rule—but you know it really is true. There are so many moments where you say if that had gone another way it wouldn’t have ended this way and we are just left wondering how it could have ended and what could have been changed. Just more awareness, I would say.

JA: What were your biggest challenges as director?

AE: I think really good theater doesn’t tell you what to think. It doesn’t have one message that comes across.

It has many messages and many different outcomes that the audience can leave with. My biggest challenge was not trying to shove something down their throats.

—Jaime Gropper