The actors also hope to redeem the reputations of their peers, tarnished by the assaults, property damage, and arrests that resulted from flash mobs in Center City and on South Street.
"One of the things we started off talking about . . . was creativity vs. destruction," said Colleen Hughes, the codirector. "We wanted to bring the same force, the same momentum, the same energy into the space and have it be a creative force, not a destructive one."
The play is produced by the theater group Shadow Company, part of Yes! And..., an arts-education nonprofit that runs summer camps for city children. It will be staged as part of the Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe, and is the first time Shadow Company has taken part in the festival.
"We're hoping it's something that puts our company - at least our high schoolers - on the map as artists who are willing to take risks," said Michael Brix, Shadow Company's director.
Flash! is more performance art than scripted play, mixing the spoken word and choreographed dance numbers, and encouraging audience participation. As with real flash mobs, all eight performances will be staged in public.
Flash mobs are driven in part by social media, with word of the gatherings spreading through text messages and websites. Echoing that technological aspect, ticket-holders to Flash! will learn the location of their show through an e-mail or text before the performance.
Friday's opening show for family and friends was scheduled for a stretch of South Street that had seen some of the worst of flash mobs.
Throughout the piece, which the students rehearsed this week in the concourse, many themes of their lives emerge - from peer pressure, boredom, and sexual confusion to drugs, violence, and absentee parents.
