Gun violence is an ever-constant epidemic in America. Per John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a startling average of one death per every 12 minutes occurs in the United States due to gun violence. With incredibly diverse and always evolving opinions about guns and gun violence that Americans hold, how do we bridge the gap between opposing gun views and putting an end to gun violence? How do we spark change and advocate for conversation around gun violence to protect our fellow Americans?
“Arms Around America“, the podcast and live show created and presented by Los Angeles-based theater ensemble Dan Froot & Company, is about just that: addressing all beliefs and attitudes on the spectrum concerning gun violence and incorporating them into a live performance that ignites thinking and conversation. First shown at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater in 2024, the show has toured around the country since; now, having arrived at the University of Utah’s own Kingsbury Hall April 9 and 10.
An interesting and unique vocal performance
Performed as if it were a radio show, six real stories of families affected by gun violence based in California, Florida and Montana are performed, with four talented voice actors invoking the emotions and tragedy felt by victims, and a live three-piece band with sound effects. With an audience held captive by emotion for the entirety of the show, Dan Froot & Company’s “Arms Around America” is undoubtedly a must-watch production.
After 12 years of performing the production “Pang!,” a fellow radio-formatted production based around food scarcity and security, award-winning and renowned multi-disciplined producer and director Dan Froot was hungering for something different. “We were performing in Miami, towards the beginning of 2018. And we were asking ourselves, ‘Well, what might be next after this?’ Just then, 37 people were shot at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, about 40 miles up the road from where we were. And that sort of answered our question,” Froot said.
Unexpected emotions, and even laughter
Settling into your seat in the dimmed, red-lighted stage room, you might expect an hour of melancholic seriousness. Yet, as the vibrant, boisterous band preluding the acting begins to play, you realize this is not the case. What follows are all incredibly diverse, exciting and thought-provoking stories performed by actors Donna Simone Johnson, Anthony Rey Perez, Mark Antony Howard and even Salt Lake City’s own guest actress Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin. Many moments are hysterical, with various homemade instruments that Froot intermittently comes to play; some moments are dead serious, with light instrument playing or just the silence of the audience.
Froot emphasizes the need for the audience to not only watch the stories, but to feel the stories as well. The live-telling of stories in audio drama formats, rather than an enacted play, enhances the audience’s ability to do so. When asked to enumerate on this artistic choice, Froot said it all began with the art of puppetry.
“Before we were doing these audio dramas, we were working for a number of years in puppetry. In puppetry, it’s the audience’s imagination that brings the puppet to life,” he said. “It’s an empathetic kind of work, where the audience sort of casts their own feelings and ideas and emotions into this inanimate object and brings it alive.”
This translates to the audio drama format. “It’s a similar process for audiences in audio dramas; in order to be able to see that world, you have to insert yourself between what you’re seeing and what you’re hearing and imagine the scene. That’s work [the audience] has to do in order to bring themselves to the scenario,” Froot said.
The prerogative of “Arms Around America”
“Arms Around America” is an imperative production that calls attention to the violence in our country without emphasizing political or hostile boundaries … and even making it fun. Instead of asking what side you’re on, it asks how we can all unite regardless to create a better America. It fosters an aperture where we can all lean on one another, ask what needs to be done and make it happen.
As an audience, Froot only asks us to “listen to each other. Be easy. Listen. Listen to people you don’t agree with especially.”
