Lauren Gunderson is America's most-produced playwright. She's written a wide range of plays that often feature complex female protagonists, scientists, storylines inspired by Shakespeare, and various combinations thereof. She's also no stranger to activism-by-theater and offered her play The Taming royalty-free for any theaters who wanted to stage a reading on the day of Trump's inauguration as a form of protest.

In January she sat down and wrote Natural Shocks, a gripping, yet hilarious one woman play about gun violence. Then February 14 happened in Parkland, Florida. And we decided to leverage this extremely flexible play to create a national play project on April 20, the 19th anniversary of Columbine (and in conjunction with the walk-outs organized by the MDS students for that day).

Based on Hamlet's "To be or not to be", this one-woman tour-de-force play bursts to life when we meet a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement. She overflows with quirks, stories, and a final secret that puts the reality of guns in America in your very lap. The play is part confessional, part stand up, and part reckoning.

Lauren is offering this play royalty-free for anyone who wants to stage a reading the weekend of April 19-23,with all proceeds from ticket sales (or related fundraising activity) to be directed to domestic violence and gun violence-related nonprofits. We have over 80 readings in 41 states and a flagship reading Off-Broadway in NYC starring Kathy Najimy, benefitting the Ms. Foundation.