Creative Director and Performer Makoto Hirano

Produced by Team Sunshine Performance — full credits here

Production History
• The Great American Gunshow: New Orleans — forthcoming (March 2027)
• The Great American Gunshow: Coalfields (Central Appalachia) — premiere Oct 2026, Whitesburg KY
• The Great American Gunshow: Philadelphia — premiere Aug 2025, Phila PA
• The Great American Gunshow (rural PA) — Workshop performances Aug 2022, Bloomsburg PA

The Great American Gunshow started in 2016 from a feeling… the language around gun ownership and gun culture was becoming AGGRESSIVELY divisive on a national scale, and as someone not opposed to guns/gun ownership in general (in fact I enjoyed shooting and learning about them since even before my Marine Corps days) I felt a little lost in the shuffle. Most people around me were becoming staunchly anti-gun, while it felt like pro-gun people were starting to become hyper-gun people. I started to feel alone, and I wondered “am I alone or are most people somewhere in between, and the loudest voices are the ones on opposing sides?” This question is where the seeds of Gunshow really started.

In 2021 with funding from National Performance Network, Network for Ensemble Theaters, the NEA, we started the project. My first interview-based process. I wanted to talk with people and hear about where they are with regard to guns and gun culture. We started the Pilot phase in rural PA with our Commissioning partners Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and Asian Arts Initiative. With further funding from New England Foundation for the Arts and William Penn Foundation, we continued our research and premiered The Great American Gunshow: Philadelphia (2025), the first of several iterative versions of Gunshow alongside maaaaany partners and participants. We are currently working on the next iteration in New Orleans presented by our favorite NOLA friends Mondo Bizarro (March 2027). All iterations are/will be co-created and directed by Alex Torra, and produced by Team Sunshine Performance. Big shout out to Liz Lerman for being my early mentor and thought-partner, and Ping Chong my project advisor.

Photos by Joanna Austin