Hellbox: street slang for a drawer that opens up to a mess of different things.
First off, I don’t know anything about this production of To Kill A Teenager: seven sins of the juvenile mind at the Free Street Theatre in Chicago. But, I want to talk about it because I love that someone out there is acknowledging, exploring, showing, doing, talking about the fact that there is something so explosive inside of some teenagers it creates shockwaves.
On the Free Street Theatre website, To Kill A Teenager is described as exploring ‘the emotional minefield of adolescence, untangling seven contemporary challenges to becoming adult. The intense emotional and physical performance emerges from a hellbox of violence, social pressure, anxiety, and cynicism.’
My general experience is that a far too many adults would like teenagers to be shut up in a box. If they’re not exposed to, I don’t know, ANYTHING then they’ll emerge like a butterfly from that box and their ignorance of all the ‘bad things’ will make them excellent human beings.
Right.
The title alone makes me want to promote this play. I’m not sure there’s one school in our customer base that would put on a play called To Kill A Teenager. Never mind that it might dramatize important issues that might lead to, I don’t know, discussion?
Free Street Theatre is running To Kill A Teenager: seven sins of the juvenile mind until Feb 6.
