“Killing Angela” and the Dreaded Sequel

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Kimmy Higginbotham in “Killing Angela”

In 2008, I wrote “The Tearful Assassin”, my first real foray into serious playwrighting. The purposefully fractured piece followed three storylines: one of a girl, Angela Pierce, kidnapped from her home by an online predator; another of the parents who discover a new life and new identity being survivors of the tragedy; and a third of the detectives, John Fowler and Loretta Runer, thwarted at every turn as they attempt to solve the case. The play received very good notices and sent me down a road of exploring various themes, especially the obliteration of “good guy” and “bad guy” (or, in theater parlance, protagonist and antagonist).

Around the time I was writing the show, I happened to see a production of Soundheim’s “Into the Woods”, a fairly clever musical showcasing a number of characters from children’s stories who, in Act One, find their respective happy endings but, in Act Two, have to deal with the consequences of said happy endings. I started wondering then about a dreaded sequel to “The Tearful Assassin.”

“Assassin” ended with Angela Pierce breaking free of captivity and killing her sociopathic kidnapper and the detectives pulled off of the case in light of the grand publicity surrounding the parents’ book that had been lavished on the town. Where would Angela go? What would happen to the detectives? What would life become for them?

As my imagination dictated, Angela skipped town, not wanting to be a celebrity martyr, and started a new life, new town, new husband and new name. One of the detectives, John Fowler, stayed dedicated and focused on the case, and as a result, lost everything – from respect of his partner to his wife. So, with Angela desperately avoiding her past by trying to cut it out completely, and Fowler unable to move forward because of his past, the idea struck me: let’s get these two kids together and see what horrors result.

Enter “Killing Angela”, my newest play.

The first scene I wrote was the ideal climax of the play: Fowler, who thinks he’s right, and Angela, who thinks she’s right, in a Mexican standoff, with guns trained on the other. Neither of them know how to resolve the situation, which is limited by their own narrow perceptions of what should happen next. When I was finished with that sequence, I thought, “I should really challenge myself and, instead of making this the grand climax, put this scene at the top of the show and force myself to build from there, instead of building towards it.” And that’s what I did. “Killing Angela” starts with the one of the most violent sequences I have written and has forced me to up the ante for the remaining 80 minutes of the production.

The cast has been sensational throughout, each of them finding more and more layers to their characters and surprising me in the process. It works on multiple levels for me – a dark comedy, a tragedy, a carnival ride, a psychological study and, more personally, a reflection on personal demons which I have yet to fully resolve. I have to thank Kimmy Higginbotham, who was in my last play, “Venus Envy”, and who takes the lead role as Angela, for being particularly inspirational in the final genesis and execution of this troubled tale.

“Killing Angela” debuts at The Charnel House, 3421 West Fullerton, on Friday, July 19, 2013 at 8pm. It runs Fri/Sat/Sun through August 4, 2013. Understudy Feature Performances, starring Ali McLaughlin as Angela, are on Sundays.

Script: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/vincen...

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/402364