Amy Wheeler

Amy Wheeler received 2003 GAP Award funding to defray living expenses and rehearsal costs while finishing the first draft of (Not in) Our Town and preparing for a staged reading at Capitol Hill Arts Center. The idea for this play is rooted in school violence. “It was (several years ago) after another school shooting—this time in California—and I was struck by the phrase repeated by neighbors and townspeople following these unfathomable events: ‘This doesn’t happen in our town.’ With Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town as a starting point, Amy will use theatre and video to illuminate the images and values we cling to, while exploring our collective denial of the darker realities that define who we are.