Putting spotlight on gun reform

Father of a Parkland shooting victim uses one-man show 'Guac' as a call to action.

- JESSICA GELT

MANUEL and Patricia Oliver's teen son, Joaquin a.k.a. Guac, was killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting.

Two days before a shooter armed with an AR-15-style rifle killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and injured 21 others in a mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Manuel and Patricia Oliver embarked on a six-day drive from Florida to Los Angeles to take meetings in advance of the West Coast premiere of Manuel's one-man show, “Guac.”

The show, which was co-written by Manuel and James Clements and directed by Michael Cotey, is about Manuel’s son, Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, who was killed on Valentine’s Day 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after being shot four times by a 19-year-old armed with an AR-15. Since then, there have been at least 400 more school shootings in America.

After the Minnesota tragedy—the 44th school shooting this year — Manuel did an interview with CNN while he was on the road, telling the anchors, “I believe that thoughts and prayers, this time, are out of the picture. These kids were actually praying... and still they were shot. So I know exactly what those parents are going through. It's a terrible situation and it hasn't stopped.

That's the worst part." Manuel, a painter by trade, first conceived of "Guac" early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since performed it around the country, including at New York's Public Theater and Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C.

The upcoming show will be presented by Center Theatre Group at Culver City's Kirk Douglas Theatre beginning Oct. 14.

MANUEL OLIVER honors the memory of his son, who died in the Parkland mass shooting, while pressing the need for reform in his one-man show, "Guac."