Dark Play (Or, Stories for Boys)

Travis Wright & CMU School of Drama (2019)

Dark Play (Or, Stories for Boys) is a dramatic retelling of a 2003 news story from Britain in which a teenage boy catfishes another boy on the Internet. Their interactions ares seen through the lens of a third character, Rachel, who is the catfisher’s supposed persona. The challenge in producing this play was representing digital interactions through the means of live performance; this was achieved with a combination of live camera feeds processed with special effects, projection mapping on semi-transparent scenic designs, a plastic scrim surface that stretched across the stage, and sound designs inspired by the sounds of early 2000’s computers.

The CMU School of Drama’s production of Dark Play (Or, Stories for Boys) was produced with the partial support of Microgrant #2019-013 from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier, awarded via School of Drama MFA student, Travis Wright. More images of this production can be found in this archive.

Credits

Written by Carlos Murillo
Directed by Adil Mansoor
Actors: Jaron Crawford, Jasjit Williams-Singh, Saran Bakari, Harry Thornton
Video Media Designer: Davey T Steinman
Video Media Assistant Designer: Giada Sun
Video Media Engineer: Cassidy Pearsall
Sound Designer: Travis Wright
Photography: Louis Stein, Giada Sun