On May 27, 1968, Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech on gun control on the steps of the courthouse in Roseburg, Oregon. He was heckled and went on to lose the Democratic primary... Less than 2 weeks later his life would be cut short by an assassin's bullet.
Almost 47 years later on October 1, 2015, the sleepy logging town found itself in the spotlight of the Second Amendment controversy yet again. A mentally disturbed student opened fire in a classroom at Umpqua Community College, killing nine and injuring several more before turning his gun on himself.
Roseburg examines the simmering synapses between the gun control argument of the Vietnam era and its stepchild, the modern Twitterverse that holds any and every conflict under the microscope of bipartisan disdain and infotainment ennui. Why are we still arguing about this and when will the killings cease?
Ginger Dayle (writer of Hinckley) and New City Stage Company's educational ensemble have crafted a melding of eras and attitudes that bring a progressive hero and a conservative conundrum into the withering focus of a nation gone numb.
