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8.18.10

Posted by DCA Theater on August 20, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Thirteen Pocket

by Jeff Phillips, playwright for Bosto script as part of XIII Pocket Incubator

Anthony Nikolchev is back from Poland, and this week we’ve begun work-shopping his play The Displaced, which he started several years ago and has since gone through several drafts. It’s been exciting to play with, as there’s not that many science fiction plays out there, at least that I’m aware of. Set in 2063 it follows the development of “the method” and examines complexities in class struggle and ethics in scientific solutions to over population. Monday marked the first day of jumping into The Displaced and Anthony was able to come back Tuesday with another draft to examine. One of Anthony’s big focuses on the outset was using text as a place to start work rather than set work.  And it’s clear ensemble is a huge component to him in creating a work, in creating a world on the stage. In the piece technology is such a part of the world, that it becomes not a bridge to a communal disconnect but is the pulse of human living, attempt to usurp all human variable. In an age of iPads and BlackBerrys, constant electrical distractions, its refreshing to reflect on that and put on its feet a commentary, a satire, that can be communicated through a medium which I’d like to think is the best medium for such a theme…the gathering of a cast and audience, a community, in a dark theatre, with perhaps minimal technology needed for the presentation.

Bosto update - the script has continued to grow. Various questions and ideas posed during the first week of work-shopping have “sprouted” into new pockets of story and stakes for each character in the Bosto environment. I’m excited to bring it back to the table.