How to move beyond global warfare and gang andstreet violence is explored through the unlikely medium of RAP in THUGUN ANDNATASHA, a drama with rap, for family audiences. The play is rooted in thereal life Los Angeles killing of ayoung black girl by a Korean storekeeper who was a woman. In THUGUN AND NATASHA, the gun ispersonified and becomes THUGUN a master rapper and manipulator of peopleshearts and minds. RAP replaces theGreek Chorus, as Thugun the time-honored gun with all his attendant hubris, raps his way through life, exploring everyangle of temptation for young men in an ethnically divided community as well asthose living in fear while trying to keep their lives and their businessesintact. Sookee the storekeeper becomesa tragic perpetrator as well as deceived victim when she unwittingly kills the promising Natasha, an A student, abrilliant, precocious teenager while Thugun, the man-made oddity gloats inhis achievement. Sookee and Thugun are finally put on trial, as is ArticleII, the second amendment of the U.S.Constitution, humanity itself and the will of human beings to transcend theirdifferences and reach the ultimate intuition ofreverence for life. THUGUNAND NATASHA is a play for all ages.