Recess - a new immersive play cowritten by Katherine (Kate) Mullis and Melissa Wilson - has been accepted into The Atlas Intersections Festival ! It will be performed on March 1st, 2026 in Washington D.C. and we need your help to get there.

Why Support Recess?

Recess tells a story of empathy, listening, and compassion - an essential story in our extremely polarized climate.

Our goal in writing Recess was to present political opinions from as many "sides" as possible from as objective a lens as possible. While the characters have their own opinions, the play does not. The play also allows the audience time to talk with each other about their own hearts and opinions.

So often - whether intentionally or unintentionally - we find ourselves in echo chambers. The only people we see, the only news we read, and the only media we consume agree with us - and more than that, they villainize the other side. The only time we hear about the opposing view is in the most extreme and unflattering light.

But on every side of every issue are humans. We don't have to agree with them, but we can recognize their humanity. This play voices that perspective.

The Story

Throughout college, Melissa struggled with feeling torn between her faith and arts communities. She saw the love and light in both, and was constantly wrestling with the ways in which they fought each other. Recess became the way to express this experience through her favorite medium - theatre.

She started by conducting a series of interviews with 40 Americans from as many racial, cultural, economic, age, geographic, and religious categories as she could. These interviews asked a series of political questions followed by a series of heart/motivation based questions. Her hypothesis (which was proved true) was that though the political answers would differ greatly, the heart answers would stay consistent. She and Kate then took these interviews as source material to write the following play.

Recess follows a group of 5th graders (played by adults) through a school year. We open with Bird (a human) introducing his idea for a science experiment. His hypothesis states that IF 4 kids are unknowingly brought together for a series of political conversations, THEN they will eventually learn to listen instead of fighting and taking things personally and all the stupid stuff adults do. The idea for this experiment is fueled by his parents - both local politicians - and their debates and lack of listening at home.

The four kids he sets his sights on are Ashley, Sam, Nora, and Phineas. Ashley is bold and energetic, coming from a conservative family and unafraid to let her opinions loose. Sam is her archnemesis, also coming from a conservative family, but with trauma around gun violence that creates conflict within him. Nora is quieter, raised mostly by her liberal grandmother because her mother is a drug addict. Shy Phineas lives with his mom but never stops hoping that his parents will get back together after their recent divorce.

The four kids become friends as the school year wears on, and between a mixture of Bird's set ups and life's natural events, the kids have discussions around the 2024 presidential election, guns in America, LGBTQ+ rights, and abortion. Over the course of the year we see them succeed and fail at practicing listening, empathy, and compassion.

At the end of the play, we flash forward 25 years to the 5th grade graduation of Ashley's oldest daughter. All 5 original kids (now adults) are in attendance, and we see how their experience in 5th grade shaped them, though they still retain many of the same flaws.

The Budget

To give Recess the performance it deserves, we are aiming to raise $5,000. This breaks down as follows:

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