written by Camila Klas

Directed by Ramon Paradoa and written by John Norton, this piece from the University of Central Florida talked about an incredibly hard topic to discuss. This one-act follows the story of the CEO of a big firearms manufacturer in the United States and his two marketing advisors after a terrible shooting. The company was, ironically enough, about to start a new campaign where the ads had the silhouettes of kids with a target symbol on them. I hope I don’t have to explain why that is terrible.

My initial concern was how they were going to develop this very sensitive topic without romanticizing it or even worse, excuse it. However, instead of romanticizing the topic, they focused on humanizing the CEO of this company. Even though by the end of the play I still did not find myself a hundred percent empathizing with that character, I could see the reasoning behind his action, which I believe is one of the greatest achievements as an actor. But, like Jake Peralta in Brooklyn-99 “Cool motive, still murder”.

I really want to highlight the use of masks for this piece. First of all, thank you UCF for following the COVID-19 safety guidelines, highly appreciated. Secondly, and on a more artistic note, there were points where I forgot they were using masks. The actors ( Jullien Aponte, Caroline Hull, and Matthew Beaton) brought such naturality to it that it made it seem like they were not an impediment at all. They did an amazing job at embodying their emotions and in this way conveying their thoughts through movement.

I feel the need to share that as soon as the play ended, I ran to my phone to call my parents and ask them how they were doing. Watching Triggered was a great shock of reality that I did not think I needed. The writing was strong enough to keep me engaged for 59:25 minutes (which with my attention span is very impressive). There were some shocking lines like “People are shitty and we are all fucked”, “How much money do you think a six-year-old is worth?” and, my personal favorite, “I can’t sell fear”.

If you made it this far into the reading, well… congrats, and thank you for sticking around! Keep an eye out for more reviews from the ITJA team.

Camila Klas