Rarely does a computer program serve as an essential entity to a play’s success.
Tonight, viewers will be provided an opportunity to watch the innovation behind internationally-produced playwright Christine Evans’ play “You are Dead. You are Here” as a part of The Process Series.
Though still under development, the project has seen great progress. Initially starting out as ‘The Underpass’ at last year’s Collaborations: Humanities, Arts and Technologies festival, the play focuses heavily on the interaction between the real world and virtual reality, specifically in the context of war.
“I didn’t want [the technological aspect] to just become a cool effect,” Evans said.
The play follows an Iraq War veteran in the midst of his treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. With the aid of a virtual simulation program known as Virtual Iraq, the veteran’s therapist attempts to guide him through his memories in order to dislodge the trauma.
“It’s a first-person shooter perspective, but without the shooting,” said Joseph Megel, resident artist in the department of communications studies. “You don’t get to shoot, you just get to relive.”
After the CHAT festival, Evans and Megel visited the American Repertory Theatre, stationed in Cambridge, Mass. There they began working with Media Designer Jared Mezzocchi. It was during their stint at ART that Evans realized that “The Underpass” needed to be reworked.
“I felt like it was more of a poem and in making it a full-length piece, in order to hold up the story, it needed a more sturdy architecture,” Evans said.
From there, the three collaborators went to Washington D.C, visiting Georgetown University and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where they were given the program for Virtual Iraq.
“What’s interesting about Virtual Iraq is that it’s cyclical, and this repetition is part of the therapeutic process,” Megel said.
Evans echoed Megel’s statement, saying that the access to this program used to treat PTSD in reality is vital to the project’s delivery.
“Now were not running a piece about Virtual Iraq, we’re running a piece with Virtual Iraq,” Evans said.
Mezzocchi has been instrumental throughout the collaborative process, orchestrating a large portion of the play through his digital design. Not only is he handling the design, Mezzocchi is also playing Virtual Iraq throughout the play.
“We had the option of recording all of it and making it queued, but there is something so rigid about that as [Evan’s] is rewriting it,” Mezzocchi said. “To have that lucidity is really something.”
Mezzocchi added that the balance between the the on-stage actors and what he’s doing behind the scenes is what carries the story along.
“The media is this character that is kind of a consuming thing on the world, and if it turns off, it becomes a very rigid voice,” Mezzocchi said. “We’ve been finding very subtle ways to keep it ‘breathing’ when it’s neutral, and that really helps.”
While the veteran and his therapist work backwards through memories, paralleling their progression is a young Iraqi girl blogging throughout the story.
“In a way, Virtual Iraq is a portal to everyone’s story,” Evans said. “It’s like an engine that has different drivers at different points in the story.”
The project looks to continue with next step of the process as resident artists at HERE Arts Center in New York. They will conclude with a production in New York, after taking up the residency in the coming years.
“This is not a commercial for Virtual Iraq, nor is it a critique,” Megel said. “Virtual Iraq is a fact, just as the Iraq War is a fact, and those facts form the world of this play.”
See the play Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Swain Hall Studio 6. Tickets are free, but the department asks for a $5 donation.
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