written by Scotto Moore | directed by Kristina Sutherland
Apr 23 – May 22, 2010 | Fri-Sat at 8 pm
Industry Night: May 10 at 8pm
$15 gen | $5 stu
“When I Come To My Senses, I’m Alive!” is a near-future sci-fi story about a technological provocateur who invents a method for capturing emotions as digital information, as part of a project to “chart the emotional genome.” She develops a cult following of fans who download her very addictive “emoticlips” – each delivered with cryptic, poetic file names like “the surprise of an unfamiliar memory” – and play them back in hobby-built receiver helmets. The experience is not full blown virtual reality; instead, emotional responses & sensations are triggered, and each fan experiences something unique. A seedy television executive tries to coopt her technology to syndicate the emotions of TV stars, hiring an elite P.I. to figure out what her weaknesses are when she refuses to sell out… but in the meantime, publishing digital versions of her emotions to the internet has unexpected consequences amongst the botnets of the world.
Scotto Moore‘s new play, “When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive!” is the best kind of science fiction, the kind where speculation about the future feels like something you could wake up to tomorrow morning. In this World Premiere production, director Kristina Sutherland has kept the ideas fresh and intriguing and the performances finely finished and compelling. The acting is brisk and, at least for the enthusiastic opening night audience, it’s premise and articulation is easily embraced by a generation for whom the globalization of information, media and personal experience meld into our shared online identities…. [The play] is a lot of fun, at least in part because it is so confident and thoroughly considered in its ideas and equally finished in its theatrical savvy for putting them on stage.
It’s not hard to be captivated by Moore’s provocative premise about a leap in information technology that makes human emotions a downloadable, vicarious experience. The story’s late turn toward suspense — with the spectral rise of freethinking, artificial intelligence on the Internet — certainly ups the ante in unexpected, spooky ways…. Director Kristina Sutherland keeps the action brisk and crisp, and knows how to nudge the audience’s imagination.
One wants to see more plays like this in Seattle—smart science fiction about the amazing world we have found ourselves heading toward.
Fun, fascinating, thoughtful and delightful.
[Note: omnipotent self-aware botnets click here]
Jade Justad in When I Come to My Senses, I'm Alive!
CAST
| Annique Farrar | Jennifer Pratt |
| Micky Carter | Daniel Christensen |
| Veronica Bilious | Jade Justad |
| Aleister Rowland | Curtis Eastwood |
| Cicely Bryce | Katie Beudert |
| Monica/Emily March | LaChrista Borgers |
| Whisper/Cody Charles | Jesse Keeter |
CREW
| Stage Manager | Rob Bergquist |
| Set Design | David Gignac |
| Light Design | Dani Prados |
| Costume Design Headgear Design |
Rebecca Grabman |
| Props Design | J H Welch |
| Sound Design | Scotto Moore |
| Technical Consultant | Brett Wagner |
| Technical Director | Max Reichlin |
| Production Manager | Ellie McKay |
| Build Team | Jillian Vashro Ian Johnston |
| Poster Design | Miquela Suazo |
| Trailer: Director of Photography/Editor |
Ben Laurance |
| Trailer: Gaffer | Michael Hayes |
| Trailer: Sound | Ian Johnston |
PRESS
| Press Release | Senses_Press_Release.pdf |
| Press Photos | Senses_Press_Photo_1.jpg Senses_Press_Photo_2.jpg Senses_Press_Photo_3.jpg |
