THE GREAT AMERICAN GUNSHOW

Lead support for The Great American Gunshow: Philadelphia is provided by the William Penn Foundation.

The Great American Gunshow: Philadelphia is an interview-informed performance exploring American gun culture, gun violence and trauma, and the tension within our society over the “right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” Gunshow documents, maps, archives and reflects our collective experience through a theatrical presentation designed as a unique hybrid of a live performance event and a participatory forum, created by Team Sunshine Performance through 75+ hours of interviews with Philadelphians. Gunshow explores the humanity at the heart of the issues surrounding guns and invites audiences to engage in a more nuanced discussion. Together, performers and audience work to understand the overwhelm, confusion, frustration, and exhaustion that comes with these issues as a way to imagine a future for Philadelphia.

We presented our most recent iteration, The Great American Gunshow: Philadelphia in August 2025 at Safe-Hub Philadelphia.

Project Mentor: Pink Fang (FKA Ping Chong & Co.)
Design Strategy Partner: Mike O’Bryan/humanature
Creative Producer: Katy Bagli
Community Liaison: Donnell Powell
Graphic Design: Peter Owen, Matthew Thompson
Project Partners: Art-Reach, Asian Arts Initiative, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, CeaseFirePA, Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice “CYPHER” program, FringeArts, IMPACT Services Corporation, New Kensington CDC, Pink Fang (FKA Ping Chong & Co.), RawTools Philly, Safe-Hub, Taller Puertorriqueño, Wealth + Work Futures Lab, YSRP, Carol Lastowka, Nora Kramer, Mike O’Bryan/humanature, and Casey O’Donnell

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The Pilot Phase of this project was created in collaboration with Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, with work-in-progress showings at Caldwell Consistory and Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia) in Aug 2022.

Host Partners: Asian Arts Initiative and Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (Bloomsburg PA).

Special thanks to our 2021-23 Community Liaison, Sarah Branch.

Photo by Willow Springs Photography, willowspringsphotography.com

Videographer Danielle Gatto was invited to join Team Sunshine in Central PA during the Pilot Phase of The Great American Gunshow, the company’s exploration of gun culture, safety, and community. Danielle was invited to record the process and create a short video as her own artistic response on the first year of the project.

Funding for this video generously provided by National Performance Network's Documentation and Storytelling Fund.

Read about THE GREAT AMERICAN GUNSHOW in WHYY and Pacific Citizen below.

SUPPORT FOR THE GREAT AMERICAN GUNSHOW

The Great American Gunshow was made possible with funding, in part, through an Exchange Grant from the Network of Ensemble Theaters’ Travel & Exchange Network (NET/TEN), THE GREAT AMERICAN GUNSHOW is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Asian Arts Initiative, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. THE GREAT AMERICAN GUNSHOW was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Mellon Foundation and additional funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Support for Team Sunshine Performance provided by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Wyncote Foundation, and Independence Foundation.

Find out more about the project and our support from the National Performance Network by reading A Sense of Safety: Makoto Hirano on Assimilation, Fear, and Gun Reform.