MARSHALL — The Marshall Area Stage Company (MASC) is participating in a national reading event open to the public of Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence on Monday night. The event will hold six 10-minute readings of plays written by teenagers confronting gun violence.

“It is a nationwide event, and we are going to be one of over 70 different locations doing the same six 10-minute plays on the same day (Oct. 6),” MASC President Bob Schwoch said. “That also includes locations (like) one in the Virgin Islands, and I think there’s one in Germany.”

Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence is in its fourth year of operating nationwide plays, all of which surround the idea of gun violence in an effort to bring more attention to the topic. The event has taken place in 2020, 2022, 2023 and now 2025.

According to the national organization’s website, “ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence creates space for teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country.”

This is the first year Marshall is participating in the event.

“The plays are all written by teenagers,” Schwoch said. “They are all on the same theme, but they take very different approaches, and some very creative approaches to it.”

Play writers are between the ages of 13 to 19, and there were 127 scripts submitted for this year’s event. A panel of professional playwrights and activists select the six finalists.

17-year-old Georgia-native Abby Dougherty’s play investigates the emotional toll of healing, response and resistance following a school shooting. Her play is titled “Holding Space.”

Matias Finley’s play, “Oh Look, Another School Shooting,” questions the aftermath of a school shooting and where attention is directed towards, and the idea of healing becoming an afterthought. Finley is 17 years old and from Wisconsin.

Ian Hodges of Florida, 16 years old, is another selected finalist with his play, “Nobody Cares About Death.” The play uses the character of Death, telling a story from its perspective of being a lot busier and complains about their increasing workload.

Payton Aurora Jones from California, 19 years old, wrote a play titled “The Perfect Victim,” about the power of community in the face of violence and systemic racism.

“We didn’t Have to Meet Here,” was written by Pace Rundlett of Mississippi, and highlights the idea of strangers having nothing in common, except being involved in a shooting and a story of statistics regarding gun violence in America. Rundlett is 16 years old.

The final of the six play readings is titled “Under Wraps,” by 19-year-old Olivia Stanley from Texas. The reading details the escalation of intimate partner violence through poetry and dance.

“The whole point of the nationwide program is to raise awareness and maybe start some conversations,” Schwoch said. “It (gun violence) seems to be more and more of a pertinent, important topic to start talking about.”

Schwoch first heard of the organization at a theater event in Duluth, sparking his interest in wanting to get the Marshall theater community involved.

“I learned about this when I went to a statewide theater festival, and the only theater in Minnesota that did this in 2023 had a workshop on it,” Schwoch said. “I attended the workshop, and that’s how I learned about it. That’s how I brought it back to the Marshall Area Stage Company.”

There will be two other Minnesota theaters participating in the event and play readings, in Hopkins and St. Paul.

Other participating areas include Hawaii, Alaska, Seattle, New Mexico, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York and more. According to the organization’s website, nearly 3,000 artists across more than 150 communities have participated in the previous three nationwide readings.

The readings in Marshall hosted by MASC will take place on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Marshall-Lyon County Library in the community room. The event is free to attend and open to the public.

“We take any free-will offering, and that will be divided amongst MASC and our partners,” Schwoch said. “Our partners being the Marshall Lyon County Library, who is providing the venue, and also the Marshall Area Peace Seekers.”