On Aug. 25, 2003, Mario Albert Madrigal, Jr. was shot multiple times at his Mesa home after police said he came toward them in a threatening manner while bearing a knife. After a four-minute standoff, the 15-year-old boy lay dying from 10 gunshot wounds.
Current events often influence the arts, and ASU theatre professor Jeff McMahon has allowed the non-fiction story to influence his latest work. Honorable Discharge is a monologue that uses a local tragedy to depict the vulnerability of human nature.
McMahon's piece was inspired by the death of Madrigal, who was killed by Mesa police. McMahon says that through his monologue, he wants to show what was going through the minds of both the police and the boy.
"The concept that someone who is armed is a threat makes the opponent wonder if they should pose as a threat in return. With this mentality, the situation escalates, and that's when things get out of control," McMahon says. He adds that this concept parallels the situation in Iraq and the relations between U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens.
The play stars fellow theater professor Lance Gharavi. Gharavi asked McMahon to write a piece for him to perform, and McMahon created a character that required physicality. McMahon says he felt Gharavi had the ability to change personas quickly, so Gharavi would be able to depict both sides of the story.
"He will constantly be switching identities, and that's one reason why this piece is not a traditional or linear monologue," McMahon says. "I wanted to show the possible reactions of people in threat and response situations."
Although Honorable Discharge is an original piece directed by McMahon, he does use clips from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Shakespeare's Henry V as a supply of ironic commentary.
"Their relevance to what the play depicts is that Tom Sawyer relates to the childish perception of stepping over one's boundaries, and Henry V, the story of a young king, who is forced to become more mature through his experiences," McMahon says.
McMahon, a native of New York who came to ASU in 2001, is excited to take his piece back to The Big Apple, where it will be performed at Dixon Place.
The show also features three students, currently in the fine arts master's program at ASU, who perform monologues concerning social and cultural issues. The show will take place at Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix.
Chris Danowski, whose company, Theatre in My Basement, is producing the show, says he and McMahon have worked together to expose the public to performance art, as opposed to traditional plays.
Danowski says McMahon's monologue being based on a local event is just one more attempt to bridge the art communities in the area.
"We are trying to build bridges between downtown Phoenix, ASU and ASU West," Danowski says. "I think this area has a lot of potential, but it's just a matter of connecting big institutions with smaller ones."
Reach the reporter at rekha.muddaraj@asu.edu.
