The Metal Children A Play

In small-town America, a young adult novel about teen pregnancy is banned by the local school board, igniting a fierce and violent debate over abortion, religious beliefs, and modern feminism. Its directionless New York City author arrives in town to defend the book and finds that it has inspired a group of local teens to rebel in strange and unexpected ways. A timely and unforgettable drama about the failure of urban and heartland America to understand each other,The Metal Childrenexplores what happens when fiction becomes a matter of life and death.Adam Rappis the author of numerous plays, including the Pulitzer Prize finalistRed Light Winter, and the novelThe Year of Endless Sorrows. In 2005, his young adult novelThe Buffalo Treewas censored by a school board in Reading, Pennsylvania.In small-town America, a young adult novel about teen pregnancy is banned by the local school board, igniting a fierce and violent debate over abortion, religious beliefs, and modern feminism. Its directionless New York City author arrives in town to defend the book and finds that it has inspired a group of local teens to rebel in strange and unexpected ways. A timely and unforgettable drama about the failure of urban and heartland America to understand each other,The Metal Childrenexplores what happens when fiction becomes a matter of life and death. "[Rapp] shows an exuberant love for the written word . . . [He] tells stories that encase classical themes--class and envy, ambition and alienation--in blunt terms and in modern settings." --Jesse McKinley,The New York TimesPraise for Adam Rapp: "[Rapp] shows an exuberant love for the written word . . . [He] tells stories that encase classical themes--class and envy, ambition and alienation--in blunt terms and in modern settings." --Jesse McKinley,The New York Times "Rapp . . . is a gifted storyteller. He makes demands on his audience, and he rewards its close attention with depth and elegance." --John Lahr,The New Yorker

Metal Children, The
ACT ICHARACTERSTOBIN FALMOUTH, a novelist in his late thirties, disheveled, adrift 
BRUNO BINELLI, a feisty gay Italian-American book agent, mid-forties 
KONG, a teenage male pot dealer; a skater punk homeboy 
LYNNE, a woman of fifty who likes to party; tired 
EDITH DUNDEE, a woman in her fifties who runs a roadside motel; sweet 
STACEY KINSELLA, a progressive high school English teacher in his mid-thirties, at once fearless and terrified 
VERA DUNDEE, a young woman of sixteen; a precocious visionary 
COOPER, a young woman of sixteen; Vera's second-in-command 
BOY IN PORKY PIG MASK, a teenage boy; a bully 
OTTO HURLEY, a civic leader with a big booming voice, fifties 
TAMI LAKE, a young Christian woman of sixteen, God-fearing 
ROBERTA CUPP, a community leader of the Christian right, mid-forties; a widow 
NURSE, a young woman with a firm bedside manner 
BOY X, a high school freshman with an unusually high sperm count; eager to pleaseCopyright © 2010 by Adam Rapp