Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “new play”
Of course, computers are not moral agents, so “ethical algorithms” are not possible. We have to count on the people who are making/developing these AI devices to be ethical. Increasingly, though, it seems they don’t care that much about ethics. Applying AI to take over evaluations and judgements in social services and financial and legal systems can be problematic. Frank …
After a truly humiliating reading on Saturday, I spent 48 hours renouncing playwriting. The draft is really, really bad. Now, I knew I was writing a bad draft. I acknowledged it openly. But THIS bad? Jesus wept. So, after the career renunciation phase (what happened to denial?), I moved to “Okay, what did I learn?” Because at this advanced age, …
One of the most disturbing pieces of information I discovered while researching my play, “The Engine of Our Destruction” is the link between child drownings and parents glued to cell phones. A Texas mother was charged after a witness reportedly claimed she was using her phone while three of her children drowned in an apartment complex pool in 2015. Drowning rates are highest …
I’ve been slow to add blog posts lately, as I’m working to complete Act II of my new play about ethics in Big Tech. Or rather, lack of ethics. The play was originally titled Zero Tolerance, but that doesn’t really apply any more. The new working title is The Engine of our Destruction. I’m examining the ethical choices of two …
I’m working on a comedy (hooray! finally) with the working title The Engine of Our Destruction. I became fascinated by the psychological condition scrupulosity, and the main character suffers from this fascinating variant of OCD. Scrupulosity is akin to OCD but for ethical and moral matters. People with scrupulosity fixate on moral actions and experience extreme stress and anxiety if …
My latest audio play, adapted from a commissioned work that coronavirus kept from the live stage, is The Law of Attraction. It’s a comedy about the world of self-help, its gurus, and how close we can get to delusion when we think the Universe is there to serve our personal needs. It’s produced by The New Conservatory Theater Center, directed …
The research for this play, the sequel to “The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective,” is involved and dense. It’s also shocking, and quite moving. The topic of women locked up as “insane” when they weren’t is part of a very long and intersectional history of women being treated terribly by the medical profession, women of color worst of all. Horrendous medical …
Ronald Knox was a mystery writer in the early part of the 20th century who belonged to the Detection Club, a society peopled by such legendary mystery writers as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, G. K. Chesterton, and E. C. Bentley. Among his novels: The Viaduct Murder, Double Cross Purposes, Still Dead. Knox was also a Catholic priest, which is perhaps …
At a recent reading of a new play by a playwright I know, an audience member pointed out that racism and transphobia were part of the play, but were not dealt with within the play. For example, an extremely transphobic father deadnames his daughter and disparages her in a number of ways, remaining aligned with the opinion that he sees …
Central Works Theatre has announced its 30th (!) Season, and Bystanders is one of the four plays that will premier there in 2020. It promises to be a kick-ass season, which includes a musical. Central Works produces only new plays. In 2019, three of four plays produced were written by women; next year, their playwright gender parity is 50/50. While …