Candles, an original play by Harriton’s own Angelina DeMonte, was performed at the Arden Theater Company from January 16-25 through the Philadelphia Young Playwrights’ Resident Playwrights program. A piece of political advocacy, Candles tackles the visceral topic of school shootings and gun control in America. I had the opportunity to see the play and later discuss it with DeMonte. 

The Harriton Banner: Can you tell us a little bit about the play?

Angelina DeMonte: The show Candles is about four high school students who are part of their journalism club, and they’re lacking motivation; they don’t really know what they’re doing. When their school is attacked by a gunman and they lose their mentor, [the students] struggle to find a way that they can make a difference and speak out while dealing with all this grief. And then they finally find a way to use their talents to change something.

THB: How did you start writing, as this isn’t the first play you’ve worked on, correct?

ADM: Yeah, I’d always loved writing and theater, but separately. Then, at Welsh Valley someone from PYP [Philadelphia Young Playwrights] came in and did workshops with us and I was like, “That sounds cool,” and I started writing and then I submitted a play that I wrote to their New Voices Festival, which is a competition and they choose six plays to be performed at Temple University, and my show ended up being chosen. That’s how I got into PYP and then I started doing the Resident Playwrights program where you take classes on playwriting and topics associated with it. So that’s where I started writing Candles. I started writing that right after the Parkland shooting. Well, I didn’t start writing, just kind of thinking about possibly writing something, but didn’t actually start until I was in 9th grade, last year, and just having been inspired by the students who spoke out and their activism.

THB: What research went into this?

ADM: It started with a lot of research. The first few months were me just reading interviews and firsthand accounts and statistics and articles, and buying a bunch of books and magazines. The book that helped the most was We Say Never Again, written by the journalism club at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland. That’s what made me want to choose to write about journalism. I thought it was a very interesting perspective.

THB: Did you have inspirations in terms of the play itself, like stylistically?

ADM: Most of it was through a poetic lens, using that kind of rhythm for the dialogue and the monologues, which were a big chunk of the show. I think that poetry was a good way to communicate, not only the emotion, but also the complexity of the situation, because poetry is very complex and means something different to every person who reads it. I think that kind of style and that weird maze of words is what inspired a lot of the dialogue.

THB: At what point did you start planning and writing? Did things change throughout the process?

ADM: I have a lot of drafts. The first draft of this show was completely different. It was the same subject matter, but it was completely different characters and plot line. I just didn’t feel connected with the characters, and to me that’s the most important part. I didn’t include the shooting at all, it was just the aftermath, no flashbacks like in the final version. I went back and started writing a different show, for my own personal understanding of how the characters would act afterwards, of characters in a shooting, but then I started feeling connected to those characters, and I decided to do that instead. Once I felt connected to the characters, I felt able to go ahead with the story. 

THB: You use specific phrases in your play that have become somewhat infamous in relation to this issue, such as “people not guns.” Can you address those arguments in response to gun violence?

ADM: At first I didn’t want this play to be political at all, I just wanted it to be people in a situation. As I kept writing, you have to be political with this subject matter. “Guns aren’t the problem, people are…” I grew up in a family where half of them use guns. It wasn’t something unusual to me, people having guns[…] It’s a hard thing, because I don’t blame the people who use that statement, because I think that they actually believe it’s true to some degree, but I think that the argument is weak. People need to look deeper instead of just subscribing to a political agenda. 

THB: At the end of the play, there was a proposed bill that would have enacted stricter gun control, but it failed. Can you speak to that creative choice?

ADM: I wanted it to be real, and in the real world it wouldn’t have passed. Also showing that things aren’t happening. We’re trying, and then we seem to fail. People get this idea that maybe there will be a happy ending, but no, nothing ever seems to happen. With the audience, not letting them settle into this idea that everything is okay, it’s the end, there’s a resolution. There still isn’t one. You’re just seeing this one period of time, things are still happening after. 

THB: Do you have a final message, or if people want to help, what should they do?

ADM: If you want to help, speak out. Don’t think that you can’t do anything. Trust me. you can. It doesn’t need to be big, just start doing something, even if that just means writing things down, talking about it, or joining groups like March for Our Lives. All it takes is putting your email in, and you’re already helping. Helping out at CeaseFirePA is also a great thing to do, or just talking about it and keeping it alive is a really great way to help.

THB: Finally, what’s next for you in terms of plays and writing?

ADM: I have no idea. I’m always writing things down and scribbling down scenes, but nothing has grabbed me yet. I’m supposed to be halfway through a draft right now for my Resident Playwrights Program, but I don’t even have an idea. [Laughs]

Information about Philadelphia Young Playwrights can be found here. More information about Candles can be found here. Information about CeaseFirePA can be found here, and information about March For Our Lives here.