Michelle Kholos Brooks’ “Room 1214” Takes Aim at Epidemic of School Shootings

When I saw Michelle Kholos Brooks’ new play Room 1214 in a staged reading at Florida Repertory Theatre in spring 2024, I called it “a conjuring.” After experiencing the world premiere of it at Off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theaters this fall, in a production by New Light Theater Project, it became clear how much the play is an out-and-out ghost story — one that haunts but also seeks to repair the world.

Room 1214 is drawn from real interviews with Ivy Schamis, a history teacher who survived the 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, when a gunman’s bullets pierced into her classroom, where she taught Holocaust history. Two of her students were killed. There were 17 murder victims at the high school.

In the play, the fictionalized teacher, Lily (played by Annabelle Gurwitch), returns to the school to teach one final lesson in which her past students are resurrected. What follows is a highly theatrical collision of debates, facts and frustrations about the epidemic of gun violence in America, as the wing of the school prepares to be razed.

Leaders are held accountable. We learn about school shootings in other countries (virtually non-existent). Connections between the Holocaust and mass shootings are made. And, for a bit of mystical leavening, numerology is mentioned: the shooting was on February 14 (2/14); the Sandy Hook school shooting — which claimed 28 lives — was December 14 (1214); the play’s real setting is Room 1214, etc.

Sarah Norris directed a cast that included Thyme Briscoe, Ben Hirschhorn, Kleo Mitrokostas, Andrea Negrete and Alessandro Yokoyama. A separate production will appear in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2025.

In Room 1214, the teacher’s instinct is to lead with love, giving this piece of activist theater its big heart.

“I think it’s fair to say that writing is an expression of my activism,” Brooks told me. “But I never choose an issue to explore and amplify. My experience has been that a small sliver of a larger story will land on me and demand my attention. I would never say, ‘I’m going to write about gun violence.’ But when I heard that the Parkland shooter shot into a Holocaust history class where the students were doing reports on hate crimes — it opened an opportunity for me to talk about a subject that, frankly, drives me mad.”

Brooks was one of four talented playwrights I met at Florida Rep’s 2024 PlayLab in spring 2024, when my play Ten Minutes On a Bench had a reading, along with plays by Stephen Brown, Phillip Christian Smith and Dominic Finocchiaro.

If you want to read Room 1214, check it out at New Play Exchange. You might know Brooks’ name from her breakout play H*tler’s Tasters — about women tasked with making sure Adolf Hitler’s food was not poisoned — now published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW).

Brooks kindly answered a handful of my questions about the tragic and theatrical Room 1214.

Room 1214 is a sort of ghost story documentary. You’re a former PRI radio producer and host and interviewer. Did your journalism background inform the creation of Room 1214 or your other plays?

Michelle Kholos Brooks: What I loved about being a journalist was having the opportunity to research subjects that interested me. I could ask anyone anything when I was behind a microphone. But I didn’t love the distance I was required to have from my subjects. I’m far too emotional a person. As I’ve experimented as a playwright, I’ve found this interesting hybrid where I’ve been able to research my interests but also bring myself to the story — that is, I can work out the “why” of why a story has moved me to the action of writing.

How is Room 1214 different from (or similar to) some of your other titles? Are your other plays less overtly “docudrama”?

Michelle Kholos Brooks: I do have a few other scripts that could be considered docudrama — the two that most match that description are War Words and Project Fear (And All the Feels). War Words centers around first-person accounts of current service members and veterans who served during the Long War in Iraq and Afghanistan. Project Fear is based on interviews I did with 50 teens around the country about the fears of their generation. Each presents a wide range of stories — from the funny to the tragic to the unexpected. I loved doing these projects as it was a thrill when people opened up and shared their very personal stories. The veterans were always very polite so I knew I had earned their trust when they started dropping F-bombs. With the teens, I knew I had made headway when they would ask, “I can really say anything?” My mind was blown a million different ways.

My play, Hostage, was also something of a docudrama. It took place during the Iran Hostage Crisis and centered on this amazing woman, Barbara Timm. Her son was the youngest hostage. Barbara was a self-described baseball mom who had rarely been out of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. But when her son Kevin became captive, she flew to Tehran and convinced the hostage takers to let her visit him. Incredibly, they allowed it. When I heard this story I had to write about it and I became quite a geek about the Iran Hostage Crisis. I didn’t interview Mrs. Timm for the story, but she came to see the play and loved it, to my great relief. She was also a very spicy talkback guest and the audience loved her.

Who is your ideal audience for Room 1214? After seeing the play, I couldn’t help thinking that you’re an entertainer, but you’re also a teacher. Like, you would be my favorite English teacher. Does that impulse exist in you?

Michelle Kholos Brooks: I really enjoy speaking to students from time to time, but I don’t see myself as a teacher. I’m terrible when it comes to holding onto facts and I’m probably too opinionated about some things. But I do like to think I would be your favorite teacher! As for an ideal audience — I don’t have any illusions that the NRA would enjoy seeing my play or that it would change them in any way. But I’m thrilled when audience members tell me that the play makes them feel moved to action — or just makes them think about a subject that they’ve wanted to avoid. I fear that avoiding the issue of gun violence is going to be to the detriment of all of us.

I feel like Room 1214 should be required viewing in high schools and colleges with mandatory moderated talkbacks and resources.

Michelle Kholos Brooks: I would love that. I wish I knew how to make it happen!

Did you learn things in rehearsal that will lead to changes in the script?

Michelle Kholos Brooks: I did learn some things about the play during rehearsals and the run. I have a list of tweaks I want to address now that the show is over, but I don’t feel like it requires any major surgery. I don’t think any of the changes would make for interesting reading — it’s more about tossing some lines out, rewriting some better for the ear and locking down some stage directions I would like to make sure are incorporated to drive the show at its best pace.

How come there’s an asterisk added to the title of your play H*tler’s Tasters?

Michelle Kholos Brooks: The title of H*tler’s Tasters initially came about because social media algorithms kept kicking the show off for “hate speech.” It’s an absurd notion but it turns out you can’t reason with an algorithm. But once I adopted the asterisk, I realized it triggered very interesting conversations about what is and what is not OK to say. Some more conservative news outlets didn’t want to cover the show because they were concerned about the inevitable comparisons to Trump. Progressives were worried the title would offend people. So I just threw up my hands and doubled down on the title. Turns out there are a lot of people in between who were brave enough to take a chance and loved the play.

Here’s Michelle Kholos Brooks’ Room 1214 Playwright Statement from the playbill at Theater B at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, where the play ran Nov. 15-Dec. 8, 2024:

I always wanted to say something about gun violence. But what could I write for the stage that could possibly match the absurdity and tragedy of gun violence in the real world?

Then, I had the good fortune to meet Ivy Schamis. Ivy was teaching a Holocaust History class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when a kid, a former student, with swastikas etched into his boots and his bullets, shot into her building and then her classroom. Her students were studying hate crimes at the time. Two of them were murdered. It was Valentine’s Day.

I asked Ivy if I could interview her, and she graciously agreed. I didn’t have a plan. I just knew that her ability to hold onto her humanity, her humor, and her heart after this tragedy was something I needed to investigate. I found strength in the stories of her students and inspiration in her determination to move forward and find purpose over pain. 

It occurred to me that if the world insisted on being insane, maybe on the stage, I could be even more insane and ask what would happen if a teacher returned to her students as they were — funny, full of life, fearful, and curious, to teach a final lesson with all of us as part of her classroom? After all, who among us couldn’t use the warmth, humor, and steady hand of a beloved teacher right now? 

It’s two weeks before the election as I write this. How to survive even more insanity? And then I remember the kids, teachers, and parents who have survived and who turned their pain into purpose. I am nobody in their story, but I do not doubt that I could be anyone in their story. My friend Cheryl Dunn Bychek, who edited the novel, “American Roulette,” said this thing that I can’t get out of my mind: “At some point in our lives, we realize that everyone we know has been touched by cancer. Soon, that will be true for gun violence.” 

I hope to hell she’s wrong, but at the rate we’re going, I have to wonder. So, instead, I hope that we can watch this play together — laugh and cry together, then shake off our dull acceptance of the hate and gun violence that reaches into our churches, synagogues, mosques, movie theaters, sporting events, concerts, and classrooms. We may be a world divided right now, but I do believe, with everything left of my bruised little heart, that there is one thing we can all agree on. None of us want kids to be shot in school. 

If you feel so moved, this program lists great reading material, documentaries, and important organizations doing the hard work to mitigate gun violence. See if there is a place that makes sense for you to donate, volunteer, or just learn more about this issue. 

Thanks for coming. Theater is always a leap of faith, but you may have needed an even bigger running start for this one. I know our beautiful cast and crew will capture your hearts and make the journey worthwhile.

In peace, Michelle Kholos Brooks.

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Michelle Kholos Brooks is an award-winning playwright. Awards include H*tler’s Tasters (Susan Glaspell Award, Best of Edinburgh Fringe-The Stage, Must Watch-LA Times), Kalamazoo (Riva Shiner Comedy Award), Hostage (Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist, The Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest and a Showcase Finalist-National New Play Network), Chair (2nd Place-Firehouse Theatre Festival of New American Plays). Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Skylight Theatre (Hostage) Centenary Stage (H*tler’s Tasters), Pacific Resident Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Bloomington Playwright’s Project (Kalamazoo), The Colony Theatre (Family Planning), Florida Rep, Boston Court, Road Theatre, Wordsmyth Theatre, Barrow Group, Bay Street, Venue 9, Wings Theatre, Laurel Grove, Drama West, Vox Humana Theatre, iTheatre Collaborative, New Light Theater Project, 59E59 Theaters, Greenside (Edinburgh Fringe), Adobe Rose, Electric Lodge. Publications include Dramatists Play Service, Room literary magazine and The Daily Beast. Brooks earned a B.A. from Emerson College and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwright’s Center and Pacific Resident Theatre. In addition, she is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Visit MichelleKholosBrooks.com.