“The Columbine Project”: 100% Sweet – UPDATED

Photo by Justin Schwan

SWEET
Transcending melodrama, the play delivers a nuanced account of the whole horrific event. Portraying the banality of evil is not easy, and Ahr does a scrupulous job imparting layers to the menacing Harris. Mortelliti communicates Klebold’s precarious volatility, while Meyers, sweet without being saccharine, exudes a lovely presence. Other strong performances include that of Kelli Joan Bennett as Harris’ mom, crushed with remorse, and Marquerite Wiseman as another grief-stricken parent. Production values are minimal but this is one of those bare-bones productions in which the drama needs no further embellishment.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

SWEET
A new play by Paul Storiale called The Columbine Project examines the events and the possible motives of the people involved. By doing an incredible amount or research into the eye witness accounts, the personal diaries of the killers as well as the victims Storiale has created a gripping gut-wrenching play that left many in the audience stunned and weeping.
Robert Machray – Stagehappenings

SWEET
Paul Storiale’s The Columbine Project attempts the impossible—to document, explore, and try to make sense of the 1999 massacre of twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School, outside of Denver, Colorado. Against all odds, The Columbine Project proves a triumph for the writer-producer-director and his cast of twenty-one mostly very young actors. That Storiale has been able not only to explore the hows and whys of that most horrific of days, but that he has also somehow managed to fill his stage with nearly two dozen gifted performers is nothing short of miraculous.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

SWEET
The whole cast excelled their “spot-lit” scenes! Compelling live song performances by Bradley Michael, and the pulsatingly angry music score, “drove” the messages home! A darkly cerebral look at the psyches of deeply-troubled youths who made horrid history with their unthinkable act of violence… this is hard to watch… but it is deeply involving and voyeuristically interesting at the same time. A worthy effort to be sure!
Pat Taylor – Tolucan Times