Thursday, February 6, 2025
“When you lose a son, what do you do?”
According to Manuel Oliver, “you do what you do best,”—continue being the best father you can be.
On Feb. 14, 2018, Manuel and Patricia Oliver lost their beloved 17-year-old son Joaquin “Guac” Oliver in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since losing Joaquin, the Olivers have become outspoken advocates for stricter gun control laws in the United States. Together, the couple founded Change The Ref (CTR), a non-profit organization that uses art to spread awareness about the horrors of gun violence and champion federal policy reform efforts.
Running at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company through Feb. 16, CTR’s latest project, ‘GUAC’ is a one-man stage show written and performed by Manuel Oliver which honors his son’s life and everlasting legacy.
“This is not a fictional story,” Manuel Oliver said in an interview with The Georgetowner. “This is a true story, and it’s not an isolated story either. It’s something that happens every single day. While I’m talking to you, some kid is getting shot in some place in our country, and our life will go on, right? So, I think that we should put a little pause in our regular life and how we’re normalizing everything and just work on the solutions for it.”
Change The Ref’s name originates from a conversation Manuel Oliver remembers having with Guac shortly before his death: after playing in a particularly frustrating basketball game, Guac told his father that without a referee who makes the right calls, their team could never truly play a fair game. The Olivers believe this same logic applies in Washington, D.C.—policymakers influenced by organizations like the National Rifle Association (NRA) are ineffective and biased refs when it comes to brainstorming viable solutions to prevent mass shootings in the U.S.
In addition to sharing the story behind CTR’s name, Oliver recounts a number of powerful memories from his son’s life during the show, all while wearing a pair of Guac’s bubblegum pink sneakers. A common thread linking many of these tales is Manuel and Joaquin’s shared love of music. On one particularly special night, the two attended a Guns N’ Roses concert together, and Guac had the chance to watch Slash—his favorite guitarist—perform the main theme from ‘The Godfather’—his favorite movie—from the front row. When they weren’t attending concerts together, Joaquin and Manuel could often be found rocking out to “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, air guitar and all.
“I feel more comfortable playing the air guitar than wearing a tie and talking to Ted Cruz,” Oliver said. “I think I’m also more efficient doing that than the other option. And the relationship that I had with my son was very much attached to music and pop culture and cool things, so that’s not something that we created—that’s who we are.”
In between stories, Oliver lovingly paints a portrait of Guac in silence as music plays. One of these interludes features Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River” by Audrey Hepburn, a cover released on the same day as the Parkland shooting. When Oliver reveals that he and Guac listened to Frank Ocean together on the way to school the morning of the shooting, the song’s lyrics become even more heartbreaking.
When the house lights first begin to dim, audience members are instructed to silence their cell phones and to refrain from taking any photographs during the show. However, once Oliver takes the stage, he invites attendees to disregard these standard theatre practices entirely.
“This is not a commercial show that was made for that purpose of making money and reaching Broadway, you know?” Oliver said. “This is a story, and stories are better if everybody shares them so they can reach more people.”
In addition to encouraging theatergoers to use their phones to take photographs, at one point Oliver halts the entire production, turns the house lights on, and asks everyone in the audience to call someone they love just to tell them they love them. This touching moment comes directly after Oliver recounts the last conversation he ever had with Joaquin while dropping him off at school on Valentine’s Day morning. After helping Guac select the perfect bouquet of sunflowers to give to his girlfriend the night before, Manuel made his son promise to give him a call after he had given them to her. Joaquin was never able to call his father back.
“I don’t call anyone during those two minutes,” Oliver said. “I don’t know if you noticed that, but I don’t call anyone because I am attached to that call that I never got. But I do think it’s a happy moment. I think it’s a moment of reflection for [the audience].”
GUAC is running at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (641 D St. NW) through Feb. 16. The runtime is 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets can be purchased here. One show will be held on the evening of Valentine’s Day, the seven-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting.