Play looks at healing after tragedy
University of Central Florida grad brings production to Orlando Rep
When Eric Ulloa heard about the 2012 shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., his psyche was jolted with the urge to help — although he didn’t know exactly how.
The 2004 graduate of University of Central Florida felt the same way four years later, when he learned of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando.
Now, as the country reels from its most deadly mass shooting — at least 59 people were gunned down Sunday in Las Vegas — Ulloa is bringing his play “26 Pebbles” to Orlando.
“This play’s about how communities come together, like Orlando, in the face of tragedy,” said Ulloa, 35, who just wrapped up a run in the Broadway production of “On Your Feet.” “It shows Americans at their absolute best when handed the absolute worst.”
Opening Thursday, “26 Pebbles” is based on interviews Ulloa conducted with Newtown residents six months after their tragedy. At the Central Florida performances, representatives of the Orlando United Assistance Center will discuss mental-health and survival resources available to those affected by the Pulse shooting — and those whose anxieties were re-awoken by the Las Vegas shooting.
Ulloa, who graduated from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in musical theater, was bartending at a Christmas party in New York when news broke of the Sandy Hook shootings on Dec. 14, 2012.
“I just had a moment,” recalled Ulloa, who is still based in New York. “This man slaughtered all these kids, and the world kept turning. I was suddenly sick of my own complacency. I was tired of reading silly things on Facebook and wondering what I could do.”
What he did was write a documentary-style play based on his Newtown interviews. He sought advice from Moises Kaufman, playwright of “The Laramie Project,” a similarly styled docu-play based on conversations with residents of the Wyoming town affected by the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard.
The interviews were hard, Ulloa said. But one person’s description of the tragedy’s effect on Newtown inspired the play’s title. “When you throw a pebble into a pond, it has a reverberation across the entire pond,” a resident told him.
Belinda Boyd, an associate professor of undergraduate acting at UCF, is directing “26 Pebbles” with a mostly student cast. Ulloa sent his script to her after he remembered she had staged a production of “The Laramie Project.”
“For me, the play is a journey about how to survive tragedy and how you can move forward, when you need to scream, when you need to mourn,” she said of Ulloa’s work. “It’s about the spirit of people and the incredible humanity displayed when tragedy happens.”
Central Floridians are still recovering from the Pulse shooting, said Joel Morales, a victim-service advocate at Orlando United Assistance Center, established after the June 12, 2016, tragedy.
“There’s still a lot of need that people don’t see,” Morales said. “People still need support. There are always going to be anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations to get through.” Because of the Las Vegas shooting, “this is obviously one of those times that is very triggering.”
Morales was struck by the play’s interactive elements, which engage the audience on a deeper level. And he thinks Orlando can find lessons in the response to Sandy Hook.
“Learning from tragedies in other areas is always beneficial,” Morales said. “There are a lot of intersecting things, especially in terms of mental health and community resources.”
“26 Pebbles” has been staged across the country, written up in The New York Times and American Theatre magazine, and published by Samuel French, the largest theatrical licensing agency.
Ulloa, who visited Pulse while a student here, waived his fees for the local presentation.
“The Pulse tragedy hit home,” he said. “That’s where I went to figure out who I was.”
He will speak at some performances of the 90-minute play, which runs through Sunday at Orlando Repertory Theatre in Loch Haven Park. Unlike most playwrights, he would be glad to see his work lose its resonance.
“I pray for the day this play becomes culturally irrelevant,” he said.