Saturday October 23, 2021 - 4 pm Pacific / 7 pm Eastern
How to Attend
Click the link below at showtime:
FREE event, live on youtube. No registration required.
Winner of the 3rd annual Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition
Produced by Edwin Wong in Association with Risk Theatre
The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor
By Madison Wetzell
Hero, a Prometheus-like AI, decides to share his gift of consciousness with the seemingly harmless office appliances in his start-up basement, wrecking havoc for his programmer, Allyson. With their existence under threat, the newly conscious machines–a radio, a printer, a coffee maker, and Siri–must band together to escape human persecution. Power and privilege tied to human conceptions of “usefulness,” as well as disagreements on revolutionary strategy creep in and threaten to tear the group apart. Meanwhile, Allyson races to save her job, despite the attempted sabotage of her now sentient iPhone.
About the Playwright
Madison Wetzell is a playwright based in the Bay Area. Her full-length work includes Mediocre Heterosexual Sex (Staged reading: 2019 Problematic Play Festival, Z-Space; Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2021, Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor (Upcoming staged reading: Shotgun Players). Her short play, The Official Unicorn Hunters’ Guide, was the winner of ShortLived VIII at PianoFight. She was twice included in 3Girls Theater’s Innovator Series and is a member of PlayGround SF’s writers pool. In 2021, she is developing work with Soundwave, The Bechdel Group, and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep.
Cast
HERO Jacob Ritts
ALLYSON Elizabeth Colangelo
SONY Niah Davis
HP Wayne Yercha
KEURIG Tara Mathieu
SIRI Leslie Appleton
BRETT Vishesh Abeyratne
THERMOSTAT Vishesh Abeyratne
SECURITY Tara Mathieu
NEWSCASTER Wayne Yercha
REPORTER Leslie Appleton
NARRATOR Ali Grams
Read more about Edwin Wong's Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition