(bright music) - When did this story begin to develop in your head, and what was the catalyst of it?

- I wrote the first draft of "Soft Target" in 2018.

It was a really bad year, particularly bad year for mass shootings and school shootings in particular.

It was the year of Parkland.

Anytime there is a mass shooting, particularly a school shooting, but any of them really, I don't know how to metabolize them.

So I knew I wanted to write about it because the things that keep me up at night tend to be where I start plays.

I think, on its face, when people hear what it's about, especially before they've like experienced it in a theater, people can feel nervous, or scared, or sort of pre-upset.

Like I really didn't wanna write something that felt preachy, or didactic, or like an afterschool special, or like a, you know, a bummer.

So I started thinking about, you know, what are some sort of side doors into this subject matter?

And I also knew that I really wanted to center a child, and I really wanted to give that child power in the context of the play, because I think that, on the issue of gun violence in the real world, children are so at the mercy of adults.

They're so at the mercy of our laws or lack of laws, and our politics, and our infighting, and everything.

And so I knew that if I was gonna write a play about a kid, I wanted her to not just be like a victim or an accessory, I wanted her to really be the center.

And then I started thinking about, you know, ways to invert the real life power dynamic.

And I was like, who would this girl have power over?

And I started thinking about her toys.

- What am I hurt with?

- To the hole, in your side.

Get in.

- Once I had the conceit of the toys, being played by adult actors, sort of orbiting around this child actor, then it felt like I had a way in that would offer some humor, and some levity, and some sort of playfulness and strangeness that would like create the space to then tackle the harder stuff.

- Come on, sit down.

- Nope, can't do that.

No can do.

- [Actress] You have stuffing coming out of your heels?

Come on, I'll read to you.

- No thanks.

- You sure?

- Did you have anyone in mind as you were putting these stories together, as you were developing these characters that were gonna be toys played by adults?

- When mass shootings are reported on, there's often the number of people killed and the number of people wounded, and the number of survivors and witnesses who were there, whether they were other, you know, potential targets, or whether they were first responders, or people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like those people's lives are forever changed.

I didn't want to, you know, co-opt any particular survivor story, of course, but I did sort of pull and sort of collate inspiration from reading about a lot of different survivors of different ages.

We have a child at the center of the show, so the whole team has put so much energy and care and resources towards making sure that that child actor is protected and feels safe, and feel supported in portraying this character arc.

- Because today I got a part for the school play, which is "Peter Pan," and guess who I am?

Peter Pan!

I'm Cora Steiger.

I'm 12 years old, and currently I am in seventh grade.

- Tell me a little bit about the character that you are going to be playing.

Who is she?

How old is she?

What is she going through in "Soft Target?"

- Well, Amanda is a 9-year-old girl, and she has just gone through a school shooting at her school, which is obviously, it's devastating, but in this show there are so many funny parts, and it's about hope and getting the courage to be able to move on and heal.

For no good reason!

That's why.

- Well that's horrible.

- I know.

I was so excited to be able to portray this amazing, like brave and resilient young girl.

I could not believe that I was gonna be able to tell her story.

I am from Oxford, and I didn't personally experience the shooting and I didn't have family members at the high school at the time, but I do remember sitting at home.

Hearing about the ambulances, it was kind of just crazy.

And I think that really helped me be able to portray Amanda when I'm doing these hard scenes.

- When people come to the Detroit Public Theater to experience the work that you and your cast members are doing, what do you hope that they take away from the show?

- I really hope when they leave, they get to feel hopeful, and that like what we're doing doesn't define us, but it helps us give up the courage to be able to talk about it with people.