Students Pay Tribute to Oklahoma City Bombing Victims

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It has been 15 years since the bombing of the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building, and now some University of Central Oklahoma students are using theater to help remember the victims.

The UCO College of Fine Arts and Design has put together a one-of-a-kind tribute of what happened on April 19, 1995.

At 9:01 a.m., downtown Oklahoma City was bustling, but at 9:02 a.m. everything stopped. April 19, 1995 would be Oklahoma's darkest day.

"I was 7-years-old when it happened," said Mason Pain, UCO junior.

Pain and 13 other student performers at UCO were children when the Murrah Building was bombed. So to complete their project called "Changed Forever," they were given special access to archives protected at the Memorial.

"The very first day we went down to the archives, I was overwhelmed. It was almost like it happened yesterday," Pain said.

The students admitted it was a challenge, both physically and emotionally, to tell the story of a tragedy that changed the nation, but they did so through speech, song and dance.

Their instructor said she hopes the performance changes them.

"I feel like it's my responsibility as an educator to have students experience and know what happened and what makes us the state we are today," said Hayley Thompson, UCO Theatre Education Coordinator.

The students said what surprised them most during the research was the amount of hope and inspiration that kept the city going.

They said it's a lesson other communities can learn from.

"The Oklahoma standard was created from how this community reacted to such a tragedy, and that is what Oklahoma is still today and how we treat each other," Pain said.

The show runs Feb. 18-20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Pegasus Theatre in the UCO Liberal Arts Building.

The show will also be performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center March 28 at 7:30 p.m. and performed again adjacent to the Memorial in the streets of the city on April 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Admission to the show is free, but donations will go towards the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum and UCO scholarships.