Everyday Heroes

by Laurie Brooks

Copyright 2001

3 Men, 3 Women

Kurt and Win have spent their young lives protecting their alcoholic mother. When an accident leads to a devastating fire, they are catapulted into a media frenzy and Win becomes a reluctant hero. But the brothers harbor a terrible secret. Will Win choose family loyalty or listen to his conscience? Using video images to examine the power of the media to distort the truth, Everyday Heroes raises questions about the meaning of heroism and explores issues surrounding the power of the media and the silencing of boys' emotions in our society.

• Commissioned and premiered by The Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration of Salt Lake City in conjunction with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
• Developed at New York University Program in Educational Theatre's New Plays for Young Audiences at The Provincetown Playhouse, 2002.
• Second production, The Coterie Theatre, Kansas City, MO, March 2004, directed by Jeff Church.

The most compelling theatre raises questions rather than determines answers. Good theatre begins a dialogue that lingers long after the lights have dimmed on the action in the theatre space. If the questions are compelling enough, the debates that grow out of them can have a lasting effect, changing viewpoints and altering attitudes. No one knew this better than the Greeks, who developed a theatre that would instruct its people on how to conduct their lives through demonstrating the consequences of ill-chosen actions.

The play grew out of my desire to pursue three questions: What happens in the aftermath of heroism, when the hero harbors a terrible secret? How does the frequently distorted truth of the media become more valid than reality? What are the consequences of society's silencing of the emotional lives of young men? From these ideas, the character Win Lawrence emerged, a young man who finds himself lauded as a hero, but knows his heroism is surrounded by lies. Even as he becomes a media darling, he is torn between equal forces - loyalty to his family and the insistent voice of his own conscience. As Win figures out his choices and makes his decisions, I hope his journey will raise questions for you - questions about the creation of truth and lies, loyalty and survival, obligations to others and to ourselves - and begin a dialogue between friends, parents and children, teachers and students that will extend the life of the play long after the last words of the performance. Ironically, this play was created during the summer just prior to 9/11. The events of that terrible day redefined our perceptions of heroism, and made us aware that everyday heroes are always among us.

– Laurie Brooks

Everyday Heroes was commissioned by The Kennedy Center's Imagination Celebration of Salt lake City in conjunction with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.