When Gadfly Theatre Productions announced they were looking for new short scripts that fell in the category of queer/feminist/sci-fi/fantasy I thought, “Sure. Why not?”
After some thought, the following idea wandered into my head…
When the human race is nearly extinct, it’s hard to repopulate the galaxy if your last two astronauts are a gay man and a lesbian woman. But that’s why they created the Love Bot - half man, half woman, all designed be just what they need to reboot humanity.
And so, the Love Bot was born.
The more I thought about the mechanics of the thing, the weirder, and funnier, it got.
And strangely just a bit melancholy because, well, if you’re one of the only two people left, that’s got to be an odd feeling.
Thankfully, Gadfly took a liking to it, and it’s one of six plays that are part of their Final Frontier festival of short works, June 13 to 22, 2014 in the Nimbus Theater space.
The other plays on the docket are: Who Killed Captain Kirk, by Paco Jose Madden (directed by Immanuel Elliott); The Wolves Above, by Alyssa Zaczek (directed by Cassandra Snow); Falling Awake, by Alexis Scheer (directed by Mel Day); Honest to God, by J.C. Pankratz (directed by Anna Lewein); and Gargle McFury Slays Gender Assimilation, by Alex Reed (directed by Kristin Fox).
Scott Pakudaitis will be directing Love Bot.
And of course the first step will be auditions. Auditions will be held Saturday March 22nd and Saturday March 29th from 1pm to 4pm at the People’s Center Theatre on the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis.
My understanding is there will be some double casting across shows in the festival, and each show is getting four performances. Some rehearsals may begin in late April, continuing on through May up until the festival opening on June 13th.
Details on how to sign up in advance for auditions and what’s required are on the Gadfly Theatre blog (gadflytheatre.org).
The roles in Love Bot are listed as follows on the audition post:
Solomon-- Male-identified, any race, childbearing age (the gay astronaut/scientist)
Esther-- Female-identified, any race, childbearing age (the lesbian astronaut/scientist)
Justin-- Male-identified, any race, childbearing age (the male half of the Love Bot)
Jennifer-- Female-identified, any race, childbearing age (the female half of the Love Bot)
If you’re curious about the content, there are some script excerpts posted online on my website. Just follow these links…
“All sex will be consensual./Very consensual.”
“Our creators were always thinking about sex./They’re scientists.”
“My uterus is already exhausted just thinking about this.”
“This is a conservative religious person’s worst nightmare, you know.”
I’m proud of my little foray into science fiction. Please spread the word among your actor friends.
Thanks.