Technical Difficulties: Plays for Online Theatre

Book excerpt: This collection of socially distant shorts is designed to be performed on the internet as well as the stage. Playful and inventive, TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES taps into the delights and frustrations of staying connected. HEY STRANGER by Steph Del Rosso. Years after a messy breakup, Eve and Gideon reunite. What could go wrong? Possibly everything. A comedy about mixed signals and bad internet, loneliness and autonomy. And one very precocious high schooler. (1M, 2W.) OYSTER by Elaine Romero. Marisela negotiates a potential opportunity in a border world where kids live in government cages and being bilingual comes at a price. (1W.) INTRO TO FICTION (VIRTUAL) by Ken Urban. During office hours, a professor discusses his student’s short story. When her characters feel too close for comfort for the professor, teacher and student must reckon with how to write a good ending. (1M, 1W.) A REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION by Leah Barker. Are you in the market for a new home, and with that home, a new you? Would you like that new home-slash-you to be a charming saltbox Cape? Audience votes guide this interactive tour and auction, complete with special guests, updated appliances, and a realtor’s long hidden secret. (1W, flexible casting.) BLACK IN BLUE by Aurin Squire. After one act of police brutality too many, one man decides to do something. But in trying to get “street justice,” he threatens his life, his brother, and his job. (2M.) LOOKING BACK by Arlene Hutton. Kath was the last visitor to leave a major theme park before the pandemic lockdown. While reminiscing about life pre-Covid, two roommates challenge each other’s ideas of what truly makes a person happy. (2 n/s.) ARTFUL by Christina Quintana (CQ). In the wake of her ex-husband’s departure, Taani logs on to a Metropolitan Museum of Art webinar. Suddenly in conversation with the art itself, she finds the event is more personal than she ever could have imagined. (1M, 3W.) BOREDOM, FEAR AND WINE by Craig Pospisil. When you’re stuck at home during a pandemic, everything happens online— even therapy. Harper is suffering, and can’t reconcile feelings about the terrifying disease with the monotony of lockdown. Jess tries to be sympathetic, but the session goes off the rails. (2 n/s.) FORCED by John Cameron Mitchell. When the author was invited to attend Russia’s first queer film festival, he was prepared for trouble: The hosting cinema had pulled out after a national film figure derided the event as a “festival for child molesters.” Inspired by the courage of the organizers, Mitchell agreed to attend, bringing his Russian friend Sasha along. This monologue is derived from his diary. (1M.) TELEPHONES WITH CORDS by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen. Bozz and Banjo, best friends and fellow puppets, are feeling the separation of a Zoom existence. Frustrated, Bozz wants to talk by phone, and Banjo can’t help but sense their friend’s growing existential despair. Usually the optimist, even Banjo begins to wonder about the hands at work in their lives. (2 n/s.)