RE:From "Touching" to "Chilling" to "Enlightening"
"The Columbine Project," written and directed by Paul Anthony Storiale, is a moving and informative look into the personalities of not only Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold but of their friends, family members, and victims as well. Told through a mixture of scenes and monologues, the play offers insight into what made these boys commit such a heinous act. Artie Ahr is creepily effective as the hot-tempered, manipulative Harris, and Justine Mortelliti touched my heart as the angst-ridden, highly intelligent Klebold. What I found additionally interesting were scenes focusing on the specific personalities of some of their victims, observations made about law enforcements handling of the situation, and the communitys treatment of the boys families and close friends in the aftermath. The play is gripping and extremely moving. This is not a play with a heavy-handed message about gun control or parental supervision. Its a representation of the event, based on extensive research of available transcripts and electronic records, as well as journals and personal interviews. If you have or work with teenagers, are at all curious about what happened that day ten years ago, or just want to see some great theatre, I highly recommend this play.

Reviewed by Teresa Berkin on Sunday, Apr 19th, 2009