Acting Troupe Explores Growing Up After 9/11

The post-9/11 generation spoke Saturday, exploring the tragedies of that fateful day through theater at the Toms River branch of the

Youthful actors from the Project Girl Performance Collective and Co-Op Theatre East presented "10 Years Later: Voices of the Post 9/11 Generation Speak," which they wrote, choreographed and performed themselves.

This play chronicles what children and young adults felt shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The 13 members of the cast performed scenes about five minutes in length, with each beginning with one or several actors addressing the audience with an idea. This in turn leads to a scene describing how they felt after the attacks or a description what happened to them after the day.

All of the scenes were true experiences with the exception of one, said the cast, but were written for the stage.

“The main thing, for me, is that I want people to understand that we have a voice,” said Nick Wolf, a member of the cast. “It doesn’t even matter if its about 9/11, about the war or anything. No matter what your age is you have a voice and that we deserve to be heard as much as anyone else.”

One scene early in the play depicts two young boys playing with Legos who weren’t allowed to watch TV the day the towers being attacked. A following scene shows how one student’s parent bought 100 pairs of working gloves to be donated to the clean-up effort at the World Trade Center. The gloves were decorated with words of inspiration or drawings by young children to be read by whoever was using them at the site.

Many of the scenes are moments of true feelings; a small glimpse into a world we have all lived through. Only these thoughts are seen through the eyes of a child, or a young adult, trying to make sense of it all.

In an interview with the entire cast after the play, the actors were asked how the play came together. Kate Bralower, one of the younger actors, said that each of the cast members wrote at least one piece in the show. Emily Rupp, the guitarist and singer for two of the scenes, said that the play was guided by two directors, Ashley Marinaccio and Robert A. K. Gonyo, who sat down with the actors nine months ago to talk about where they were on that dreadful day.

Wolf, an actor and writer, spoke about one scene with two children that wasn’t true, but the cast wanted to show what two young children could have went through on the day of the attacks.

Deanna Alexandra said the show was very personal for her; both of her monologues were based on personal stories. 

“One of the things we want the audience to take away is that everyone was affected by it,” said Arianna Hanson.

“Something that is very important is the aspect of education,” said Rupp. “The aspect of teaching future generations about this (9/11).”