We Will Rise

WE WILL RISE is a powerful docu-theater work written by JP Rapozo, one of Toni Curtsinger’s best friends from college. It traces the extraordinary true story of Toni — a woman who survived the 2012 Aurora, Colorado Batman movie-theater mass shooting after being shot in the face while nine months pregnant. Through interviews, testimony, and theatrical storytelling, the play explores what happens after the headlines fade: the lingering fear, the long nights, the trial, the shifting relationships, and the everyday courage it takes to keep showing up for life. Toni’s journey is deeply intertwined with the memory of her dear friend Alex Sullivan, who was celebrating his birthday that night and never made it home. His life, humor, and heart echo throughout the piece — grounding the story in love, loss, and the people whose absence continues to shape the survivors’ lives. Over the course of a decade, Toni rebuilds her sense of safety, identity, and purpose — navigating motherhood, trauma, advocacy, and the complicated ways communities grieve and heal together. WE WILL RISE refuses to center the violence itself; instead, it lifts the voices of survivors, honors those we lost, and invites audiences to witness resilience in its raw, human form. Grounded in truth, compassion, and hope, this production asks: How do we live after unimaginable harm — and how do we rise, not alone, but together?