Our Week of Extraordinary Risk, our annual celebration of the bold and brave work being developed in our PlayLab writer’s group, is happening June 17 – 23 at the Robert Moss Theater. Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques, the only playwriting duo currently in the PlayLab, will be among the first to show their work. Their play, Society, will receive it’s world premiere reading as part of this series on Tuesday, June 18, 7:30PM. In advance of the reading, we learned more from Simon and Skylar about their goals and early inspiration for this project, as well as what’s coming next for them. Learn more below, and reserve your tickets to Society here (free, $10 suggested donation).
Pipeline Theatre Company: What do you want us to know about your play?
Simon & Skylar: It’s performed with the actors and audience seated around a giant conference room table. You’ll get to know a stranger or two!
PTC: When and where did you decide to start writing this play?
S&S: It was about two years ago, at an Italian restaurant (where all great ideas are born). We wanted to create something that spoke to the horror of living in a large city—and living at all—and why people keep deciding to do it.
PTC: What excites you most about this project?
S&S: We try to make plays that build unique and personal relationships with audiences. This play takes some of the biggest risks we’ve taken on that front, and we’re excited to see how they play out.
PTC: In one sentence, tell us something strange that happens in your play.
S&S: Exactly one bomb goes off in the subway every day, but it’s still the most convenient way of getting around, so everyone takes it anyway.
PTC: Are you working on anything else?
S&S: Yes! We’ve got a couple other projects in the works. One is an irreverent and physically taxing riff on Death of a Salesman performed as a tackle football game, complete with announcers, drills, big #1 foam fingers, PSAs on traumatic head injuries, and nachos. We’re also working on a play about two souls trying to break out of their cycles of reincarnation, with a ton of stage magic and visual effects in it.
PTC: What’s next for you?
S&S: We’re about to start a residency with Ars Nova as a part of their Makers Lab, where we’re working on a new musical called The Wayback. It’s about a group of historical reenactors who start a business reenacting people’s real, lived memories. We’ve never written a musical!
Society
By Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques | Directed by Skylar Fox
Tuesday, June 18th at 7:30 | RSVP
Robert Moss Theater at Playwrights Downtown
440 Lafayette St, 3rd Floor, NYC
Part play, part participatory focus group, part collective fever dream, Society explores what happens when the silent contracts we make with one another are pushed to extremes.
Come in. Have a seat. Have some mixed nuts. Circle a number from 1 to 5. This is just the beginning.
