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Augustana College Students Go “Under the Gun”

The controversial topic of gun control is taking center stage at Augustana College. Theatre majors and minors on the Rock Island campus performed a series of sh...

The controversial topic of gun control is taking center stage at Augustana College.

Theatre majors and minors on the Rock Island campus performed a series of short works this weekend called "Under the Gun."

Several of the pieces come from a book put together by a theatre on the East Coast, according to Stage Manager and Director, Mara Cantrell-Paulson.

The theatre asked playwrights to write narratives or memorial pieces in reaction to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012.

Another piece was written by an Augustana student who graduated from Columbine High School.

Cantrell-Paulson says the goal of the performances were to encourage conversations about gun control in our country and around the world.

"We're all across the political spectrum," says Cantrell-Paulson about the performers. "We come from various places around the U.S. and we all had relatively similar stances on [gun control], but we didn't know a whole lot about the topic besides there are guns."

"We should talk about them. We should deal with them and so we thought this would be a really good way to start the discussion especially among college students."

The Department of Theatre Arts put on three performances this weekend. Each included a talk-back opportunity with the audience afterwards.

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