Introducing a new play FOR young people written WITH young people! Project Fear (And All the Feels) is a documentary-style play that delves into the fears and obstacles faced by young people in Middle and High School today. This production compiles the stories of over fifty teens from various backgrounds across the United States to tell the stories that are meaningful to them. To learn more about this unique new piece, we sat down with playwright, Michelle Kholos Brooks.
Michelle Kholos Brooks is an award-winning playwright with productions staged internationally. Awards and distinctions include the Susan Glaspell Award for H*TLER’S TASTERS and the Riva Shiner Comedy Award for KALAMAZOO, co-written with Kelly Younger.
What inspired you to write this story?
Being a teenager has never been easy, but a few years ago, I looked around and it seemed more complicated than ever. At that point, I was only thinking about the unrelenting scrutiny of social media and the appalling normalization of lockdown drills. Then Covid-19 happened.
On a completely different note, I also noticed that middle school, and high school student actors rarely got to play characters their age. It seemed like a missed opportunity. I thought it would be exciting for teens to play versions of themselves and their peers. I hoped they would see that they were not alone, no matter what they were going through.
Can you tell us about the creation process? What was different about this process vs your other plays?
In 2020, when we went into lockdown, I decided to dive in, and interview as many teens as possible (ages 13-19) to hear what they had to say. I was shocked and delighted that fifty kids from around the country agreed to talk to me, via Zoom, and tell me the stories of their lives: their fears, their worries, and their hopes for the future. I had done something similar for my docu-play, War Words which centered on interviews with people who served during the twenty-year Long War in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through that experience, I learned that most people want to be heard—I just had to assure them that I was not there to judge them-- I only wanted to hear their stories as they wanted them to be told. Once I transcribed all of my interviews it was a matter of finding connections that could shape the material into a cohesive work. The hardest part was all the wonderful material I had to leave behind. Some of the kids talked to me for two hours! The play could have gone on for days!
What do you hope audiences take away from this story?
I hope that young people will see what connects them rather than what divides them. I interviewed kids from Alaska to Hawaii to New York to South Carolina to Iowa. I interviewed progressives, conservatives and kids of varying cultures and identities. Almost every single kid told me that they had anxiety, that they hated middle school, and that they were scared of spiders. Those are great places to start when it comes to finding commonalities instead of differences.
As for adults—I’m sorry to say that we have not been great stewards of the planet these kids are inheriting. I hope that we can come away with compassion for their experience and that we can listen—really listen to their distress. I’m not talking about homework anxiety or breaking up with your boyfriend anxiety or not-getting-a-part-in-school-play anxiety. I’m talking about the fear of getting shot in their classrooms. I’m talking about the fact that they can be recorded and held accountable for every little slip of the tongue or careless move. I’m talking about the never-ending barrage of bad news and the division we have sown in our quest to “win” some intangible status. I’m talking about the fear of many adults to assert boundaries so that kids are not in a place of anxiety wondering what is right and what is wrong. I don’t think there are any bad kids. If they are bad, I believe that is on us.
More information bringing Project Fear (And All the Feels) to your stage is available here!