Best Play About 9/11 That Wasn't About 9/11

For a couple of years now, playwright Laurie Brooks has contributed thoughtful and provocative plays to the Coterie's teen audiences. The one staged last March, Everyday Heroes, was probably her most important. We were stunned to find out she'd written about the fleeting nature of heroism before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That day redefined the meaning of heroism -- only to have the new everyman concept tarnished by bad apples who stole stuff from Ground Zero and left their wives for their fallen comrades' widows. Brooks' script featured a teenage boy's transformation from a self-perceived nothing into a beatified media darling when, in fact, he might have been complicit in a death. The actors' journey through the process was as well-sketched as the manner in which Brooks took us there.