Mary Hollis Inboden was a sixth grader at Westside Middle School just outside Jonesboro, Arkansas, on the spring day in March 1998 when two fellow students there ambushed their classmates. One of the killers, age 11, tripped a fire alarm in the building and then ran to a neighboring field where he and his 13-year-old coconspirator opened fire on the students as they exited the school. Inboden says they were lined up on the playground waiting for a roll call when she heard what sounded like firecrackers and saw people drop, screams and puffs of dust rising around them. She ran back into the school and called 911. When it was over, four students (including her best friend) and a teacher had been killed; ten others were wounded.
Inboden is a member of the New Colony, a five-year-old theater troupe with an unusual working method. Starting with a list of characters and a mere idea for a plot, New Colony’s plays are communally developed: roles are cast, the actors take on the job of fleshing their characters out in a series of improvisational workshops, and then the script is written. In the spring of 2010, Inboden broached the idea of developing a play based on her Jonesboro experience to company member and playwright Evan Linder.
“The Warriors is basically about me assuming a lot of things about my old classmates, and then learning that they’ve survived and healed and become really strong individuals,” Inboden says. “When the shooting happened at Newtown, I felt it in my gut that I have this material that could be helpful. Nobody needs to rush those families to healing, but there is this whole other life as a survivor, and I have this material that speaks a hopeful message.”
