Gruesome Playground Injuries

April 2018

In Spring of 2018, I co-directed, co-produced, co-acted, and co-designed a  production of Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph, a show following the lives of two childhood friends through proximity and time as they grapple with heartbreak, death, love, and injury. Adding to Stanford community conversations surrounding mental health and empathy, we developed the characters as full, messy people and explored the multitude of identities contained within them.

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Bringing a distinctly unique vision to this play, our production found the joy and color in this provocative, and somewhat grim, tale. Rather than using realistic gore makeup (as typical for most stagings), our production featured buckets of brightly colored paint, a ridiculously large white tarp, candy cane cigarettes, and colorful balloons. We embraced all of the messiness.

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In The Stanford Daily’s review, whose title lauds the production as “grossly entertaining,” Cruz writes, “In this painstakingly thoughtful production, Stanford Theater Lab creates a beautifully stitched narrative of hope, love and resilience. I like to think of this type of experimental, confrontational art as transformative. I like to think of Gruesome Playground Injuries as having been a healing experience in and of itself.”