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St. Nicholas-St. Mary School honors Dr. Seuss

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Life Deconstructed: Choosing our words and teaching our children well

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; &#8220;Before this history assignment,&#8221; Micaela Oliverio exclaimed, &#8220;I had no idea how many people hated Kennedy&#8217;s guts.&#8221;</p><p>Oliverio is a Wilkes University student who recently has been processing a great deal of information about the late President John F. Kennedy. But she wasn&#8217;t speaking as her ordinary self.</p><p>Rather, Oliverio is portraying a college student in &#8220;We Shot JFK,&#8221; a theatrical production crafted by Wilkes University director of theatre Teresa Fallon. The &#8220;history assignment&#8221; is a plot device in a show that uses media projections, film clips and &#8220;dialogue based on eyewitness testimony and interviews to tell the compelling story of who killed President John F. Kennedy and why.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I wanted to make it accessible to today&#8217;s students,&#8221; said Fallon, who was a child when the president was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and the Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, concluded that gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.</p><p>Even at age 8 or 9, Fallon said, she felt &#8220;something didn&#8217;t add up&#8221; when reporter Dorothy Kilgallen was found dead after interviewing Jack Ruby, the gunman who killed Oswald.</p><p>Pointing to a Wilkes student cast as a Texas sheriff who reported he had been told there was no need for his staff to help the Secret Service protect the presidential motorcade when it passed through the city on Nov. 22, 1963, Fallon said the sheriff also died under mysterious circumstances.</p><p>The way the documentary-style drama is set up, the student with the history assignment and her friends interact with historical figures such as Kennedy&#8217;s press secretary Evelyn Lincoln, intelligence officer E. Howard Hunt and a Secret Service agent named Abraham Bolden.</p><p>As the first African-American Secret Service agent to guard the president Bolden, played by Joshua Shepard, notes fellow agents disliked Kennedy&#8217;s pro-civil rights stance and thought &#8220;it would ruin the country.&#8221;</p><p>Could that have been a factor in JFK&#8217;s assassination? Was the Mafia involved? Or the CIA? The Joint Chiefs of Staff? Vice president Johnson? What about Fidel Castro?</p><p>In one of the lighter moments of the show, cast members portraying United States government officials talk about ways they might get rid of the Cuban leader &#8212; offering suggestions that range from poisoning Castro&#8217;s ice cream to putting an exploding seashell in his way.</p><p>Castro survived assassination attempts during the 1960s, Fallon said, and so did French president Charles de Gaulle, because their bodyguards were loyal. She suspects Kennedy was not as fortunate.</p><p>For the cast members including accounting/communication studies major Peter Feno, of Shickshinny, the script has opened a door to a fascinating period in history.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty wild,&#8221; Feno said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Kris Tjornhom, right, who plays CBS news reporter Bob Schieffer, restrains Brianna Schunk, who plays Lee Harvey Oswald&#8217;s mother, Marguerite, during a rehearsal for &#8216;We Shot JFK&#8217; at Wilkes University. On the couch is Micaela Oliverio, who portrays a college student in the performance. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Kris Tjornhom, right, who plays CBS news reporter Bob Schieffer, restrains Brianna Schunk, who plays Lee Harvey Oswald&#8217;s mother, Marguerite, during a rehearsal for &#8216;We Shot JFK&#8217; at Wilkes University. On the couch is Micaela Oliverio, who portrays a college student in the performance. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The cast of Wilkes University&#8217;s production &#8216;We Shot JFK&#8217; said it is fascinating to learn about events that took place decades before they were born. President John F. Kennedy was born in 1917 and assassinated in November 1963. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>The cast of Wilkes University&#8217;s production &#8216;We Shot JFK&#8217; said it is fascinating to learn about events that took place decades before they were born. President John F. Kennedy was born in 1917 and assassinated in November 1963. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Micaela Oliverio and Brianna Schunk rehearse &#8216;We Shot JFK,&#8217; which opens April 6. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Micaela Oliverio and Brianna Schunk rehearse &#8216;We Shot JFK,&#8217; which opens April 6. </caption2><photoCredit2>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Micaela Oliverio and Justin Gaskill try to piece together the facts surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the theatrical production &#8216;We Shot JFK.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_TTL033117shotjfk4-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Micaela Oliverio and Justin Gaskill try to piece together the facts surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the theatrical production &#8216;We Shot JFK.&#8217; </caption3><photoCredit3>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Universityproductionsifts history</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>&#8216;We Shot JFK&#8217;</p><p><strong>Where: </strong> Dorothy Dickson Darte Center, 100 W. South St., Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. April 6 to 8; 2 p.m. April 9</p><p><strong>Admission:</strong> $10, $5 students and seniors</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-408-4540</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes University presents ‘We Shot JFK’