Community theatre explores love and violence in drama “Stop Kiss”

The focal point of Wichita Community Theatre’s current production “Stop Kiss” is a crime that is never seen.

In the drama, friends Sara (played by Jessica Heidrick) and Callie (Claire Wehry) are walking through New York’s West Village late one night when they stop and share their first kiss. That triggers an attack from an angry bystander, which leaves Sara horribly injured and in a coma.

“It deals with an LGBTQ hate crime,” director Dan Schuster said. “That’s part of the plot but not the whole thing.”

The play premiered off-Broadway in 1998.

“(Playwright) Diana Son writes very strong, believable characters, especially the two female leads in this play are very strong and well-drawn-out,” Schuster said. “We’d like to think that 22 years later hate crimes are a thing of the past, but they’re certainly not. It’s still very timely.”

The nonlinear storytelling of the play bounces back and forth between before and after the attack.

“For the central characters, the two women, it is very much about love conquers all,” said Kenneth Mitchell, who plays Sara’s ex-boyfriend. “His love for her is more damaging for her than if he didn’t love her at all.”

Mitchell said the play depicts the repercussions of the incident.

“It very much is about a hate crime, but it’s also about every single person that that crime affects and how it affects them,” he said. “Every single character in the play is affected by this event at one point or another.”

Mitchell said his character is questioning more why Sara left him in their home of St. Louis and moved to New York than her change in sexuality.

“Whenever anyone is breaking up or finding new relationship issues, you go through a lot of confusion and you feel guilty, and (ask) ‘What did I do?’” he said. “If you don’t get the answers it really compounds the guilt and the confusion.”

Neither of the women express their feelings, Mitchell said.

“One of Sara’s conflicts is that she can’t communicate how she feels to anyone,” he said. “I think the character of Callie is unhappy with many things with her life, and unexpectedly Sara is thrust into her life. Sara fills this void that Callie didn’t know she needed.”

Mary Lou Phipps-Winfrey, who has two roles in the drama, said “Stop Kiss” at its heart is a love story.

“(The audience) hopefully will realize that love is what everyone is searching for, and it can take on many different kinds of forms,” she said. “What some people might try to take away or destroy can be rebuilt.”

Other performers in “Stop Kiss” are Braden Layman and Joe Parrish.

The playwright and the performers leave the romance open for interpretation, Mitchell said.

“This play, more than any other show I’ve ever done, really leads the audience to make their own conclusions,” he said. “It doesn’t answer every question for you when the play ends. It just says, ‘These are the facts’ and lets you go.”

‘Stop Kiss’

When: April 8-18, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Wichita Community Theatre, 258 N. Fountain

Tickets: $15 adults, $13 students/military/seniors (60 and older), by calling 316-686-1282