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    Theater Preview: The Sound Company’s Debut Production of ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ Centers on Empathy and Social Engagement

    It’s been a little while since a new theater company made its presence known in Columbus. The Sound Company – founded by Producing Artistic Directors Jess Hughes and Sean Ryan Naughton – takes its first bows this weekend, with a fascinating-sounding production of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries. The play runs May 5 through May 7, at the Van Fleet Theater, 549 Franklin Ave., with performances at 7:30 p.m. each night. Tickets are available here.

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    Gruesome Playground Injuries nestles hard truths and a deep understanding of the difficult magic of being alive in a captivating dark comedy about two people growing up with trauma and finding their way back to one another. This production stars founder Jess Hughes as Kayleen and Connor Graham as Doug and is directed by founder Sean Ryan Naughton. Empathy is grounded in The Sound Company’s work here, with free tickets to K-12 teachers and a partnership with OSU’s STAR (Stress, Trauma, and Resilience) program. I had the chance to talk with the partners over Zoom about their path from OSU grad students to founding the company and what makes their work important. 

    Richard Sanford: Tell me a little bit about how The Sound Company got started

    Sean Ryan Naughton: We got here to Columbus in 2018 and started our three-year graduate acting program, focused on creating new work. We really enjoyed working with one another, and we ended up being retained by the university as lecturers. And so, we found ourselves in Columbus, still teaching, but wanting to create our own work and create a platform for that. We’d already talked about creating a theater company, and we felt like this was the time after we got this grant from the College of Arts and Sciences to put on this play. 
     
    Jess Hughes: We got to see each other work a lot, and we were great admirers of each other’s work before we even started working together. We both approached the work so differently: I like to stew and really, like, focus in on the details. And Sean is much more [into the] big-picture thinking. So, I think we work really well together. Also, I think that all theater is exploring the question, “How are we getting along?” I really love to explore that question with [Sean]. There are moments where we’re in resistance, but I think that’s good. I think that’s what makes for exciting art. 
     
    SRN: I think so. We produced and performed a production called, ‘Sound and Fury Signifying’ at the Hybrid Arts Lab. That was a devised work that was a deconstruction of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. At the end of it, we ended up lying on the floor covered in red velvet cake. So, it was a real abstraction of the original source material. But I think a lot of fun and an exciting kinetic and energetic performance. 
     
    JH: That was where we got to really test out our collaborative process. Sean is much more, gosh, cleaner, and [he likes] empty space, and I love to make a mess. And the show started out with all these white boxes, this really pristine sort of gallery space. And then the floor at the end of it’s just covered in red. It looks like blood. 

    SRN: So then the timeline is, we got this grant, and we’d already been in conversation about starting a theater company. And we’d been back and forth trying to figure out like, “Well, what’s the name, and what are we calling ourselves? How are we talking about ourselves?” [After] this production of ‘Sound and Fury Signifying’ we started circling around the word ‘sound’ and like all the meanings that ‘sound’ can have. Sound can be talking about something auditory that you hear, that you listen to, but it can also mean sounding the depths of something going deeper, of understanding. It can also mean something that is sturdy and well made. Those are all qualities that I think we appreciate in the theater that we create and the collaboration that we try to have with one another, and with our partners. 

    RS: You referred to a grant, what were the stipulations? 

    JH: A part of the grant writing process, especially as a lecturer here, there’s so many grants, and so you’re trying to fit into what this grant is looking for, right? [When what we applied for] didn’t really fit the requirements for the grant, the college found the money because they were so excited about the project. So actually, the College of Arts and Science, found… 
     
    SRN: They created. They created something special for us. 
     
    JH: So that’s a part of the grant, was that we’re still doing this community-engaged work with the OSU STAR Trauma Recovery Center. After each show, they’re going to help us facilitate a post-show conversation where we talk about how we take care of people that have experienced trauma. And a part of the grant was us offering free tickets for K-12 educators for Columbus City Schools. 

    SRN: Who we feel are really on the front lines of childhood trauma. And trauma response in children. 

    JH: Right. Children have so many different coping mechanisms and are bringing so much trauma into the classroom. [In the play] we see these characters starting from age 8, and how their childhood trauma affects the way that they relate to one another. So, we’ve been able to offer 120 free tickets, and we actually just released 120 more because as soon as we released those tickets, they were gone. We were just so [thrilled] by the enthusiasm. Yeah, so we’re going to offer more because it feels like there’s a real need to have this conversation. 
     
    SRN: It was an outstanding show of support, and we were happy to offer it obviously. The show evenings [are] happening in two parts. We have the [play] that is contextualizing the reason for gathering in the theater all in space with one another. And then, like Jess said, we’re partnering with OSU Stress Trauma and Resiliency program here. And they’ll have representatives come to start a community conversation following a brief intermission…have a real, focused conversation so that we can unpack what we’ve just seen in the context of stress, trauma, and resiliency.  

    JH: Right. 

    SRN: I think one of the great benefits of doing theater is being able to have these conversations. I think there’s a place for theater that you go to, and you sit and watch and enjoy, and maybe then break up into the groups that you came with and sit around and over a coffee or a beer and have your own conversation. But I think there’s something really important, particularly with this project about creating an intentional gathering that is focused on bringing up a tough issue that people may or may not have the vocabulary to talk to, speak into, and offering that vocabulary to them in the context of this play. 

    Gruesome Playground Injuries – Photo provided by The Sound Company

    RS: That’s fascinating. Obviously, this is definitely a play that has a lot of really fun grotesquery in it, but there’s also, you’re right, that very serious subtext of the way childhood trauma reverberates through the lives of these two characters. And it’s interesting that you’ve partnered with a group to have something that’s more specific than a general talk back. 

    JH: Yeah. We went into this with STAR in mind. We hadn’t even applied for the grant when we originally started having this conversation with them. We were really excited to work with them, and to talk about how we could have conversations around creating a more trauma-informed community. Last year I received another grant to do a Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate Program, 12 weeks of teachings from different people in the trauma community. I learned so much just about how trauma had affected the way that I relate to people. A lot of it is about how there are so many responses that we’re having that we’re not always recognizing in the moments as being a way that we’re trying to survive, right? 
     
    RS: Right. 
     
    JH: I’m trying to protect myself. I’m coping, I’m self-soothing. Really the program was about how trauma gets in the way of our ability to connect with one another, right? It’s really, the nervous system responding to the situation feeling like, “I need to survive.” This is the coping mechanism I’m choosing in order to survive this moment, right? 

    SRN: We see Kayleen and Doug, the characters in this play, going through these cycles of not being able to connect because they’re having their own trauma response to whatever’s happening, or wherever they are, or whatever state we find them in. I was working on a director’s note for the program; the reason that we’re all on Zoom right here is that we are all collectively just now emerging from what is a collective trauma traumatic experience in a lot of ways. This issue is really at the top of mind for us both on an interpersonal level, and on a much broader global scale. I look at all the people. We’ve all seen these wild videos of people on airplanes having utter meltdowns, and people in grocery stores just seeming to lose their minds. 
     
    JH: Right. 
     
    SRN: But I think a trauma-informed response to that, is to say, “Okay, well, what are they going through, or what has been?” And it’s tough to be charitable, but that’s what the training that we did with the Care Coalition is about. Is to step back and say, “Okay, well, what coping mechanisms and resourcing are they needing right now in order to take that pressure down so that they can relate and reason with the other people in the space with them?” 
     
    JH: Just last night we did a workshop with the Columbus Care Coalition. It’s a free workshop that anyone can ride in and request to talk about trauma in our community. We did this to think about how we are creating a space where our audience can feel taken care of. And then to also just think into why these characters are behaving certain ways, right? How does trauma affect the brain and the body? And yeah, a part of what we talked about was; that so often somebody is having a trauma response, and what we think is, “What’s wrong with them?” Instead of, “What happened to them?” 

    When somebody is having a trauma response and is in this fight, flight, or freeze mode, they’re not able to listen. So, the first thing that you have to do is get them out of that mode, right? To get them back into the window of tolerance so that they are equipped to connect and access the thinking part of the brain, right? 

    RS: Absolutely. Could you talk a little about assembling the cast and crew? 

    SRN: Our colleague, Connor Graham [plays the other role]. Connor was in the same MFA program that we were in [and is a fellow lecturer]. We’ve been working together for a long time and have a longstanding relationship together. So that’s how the core group came together. We’re just very fortunate [for our relationship] with Ohio State right now so that we have access to a lot of really great artists, particularly some of these undergraduate artists. We have a pretty robust graduate program here that offers a lot of opportunities for them to design. We started feeling around among our colleagues like, “Well, who, are there some undergraduates here that might want to look at set design or look at lighting design with us?” 
     
    Braden Graves, who’s a graduate student here for set design, offered to come and technically direct and mentor also some of these undergraduate students designers along with us. We’ve just got a great group of undergraduates. [Assistant Director Chloe Garrett] was in the directing class that I taught, so it’s a continuation of our work together there. Once we got one, we said, “Hey, let’s keep going. And let’s try to make as many opportunities as we can for them to build their portfolio and to get experience in something that they’re really interested in.” We’ve got an undergraduate stage manager, lighting designer, set designer, costume designer. So, it’s something that we’re not just thrilled to do it, but we also see it as giving back to this university that gave us so much by creating these opportunities. 

    RS: Having come here for grad school and this is the first production of your company, what are your thoughts on the Columbus scene and where do you think The Sound Company fits in? 

    SRN: This entire community has been really positive and supportive right out of the gate. We’re just very grateful for that and really excited to add what we can to it.  

    JH: I definitely feel we’re so excited by the theater that’s happening, and we want to be a part of that too. And the kind of theater that we’ve become really interested in in grad school, is performance art, experimental, derived work, and found spaces. I think that there’s a hole here of that kind of work right now that we’re looking to fill. 
     
    SRN: There’s not enough messy cake-based theater. 
     
    RS: That should be on a bumper sticker. That’s fantastic. I don’t want to take up much more of your time. Anything else you think readers should know about Gruesome Playground Injuries? 

    SRN: At its heart, this story is about trauma and overcoming trauma. But it’s also a love story, full of innocence and desire. It’s about two people trying to connect with one another in a tough world. I think there’s something in it at all of the ages we see these characters at that is really, really relatable, and will be recognizable to just about anybody out there. 
     
    JH: I think something that’s happening with this project, is we’re really thinking about the act of gathering and everything that exists around this act. How are we inviting people to the theater once they’re there? How do we create a space where they feel comfortable and safe, even when they’re emotionally activated. And then how they’re leaving the theater, right? Having gone through this post show conversation, having taken advantage of an opportunity to relate to other people in the audience and process their experiences. Continuing this conversation, and hopefully continuing to find ways to resource themself when they feel traumatized or triggered or activated. 

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    Richard Sanford
    Richard Sanfordhttp://sanfordspeaks.blogspot.com/
    Richard Sanford is a freelance contributor to Columbus Underground covering the city's vibrant theatre scene. You can find him seeking inspiration at a variety of bars, concert halls, performance spaces, museums and galleries.
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