I originally wrote the script, P.S. You Won’t Be Needed in the Future, for a live performance. It was originally performed on June 2nd, 2011 at the Portland Community College Cascade Campus. The topic addresses how care-taking robots in nursing homes might affect the way we relate to each other in society.
I was inspired to write this script after reading segments from the book: Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle. In it she writes about the possibility of robots supplanting humans as caretakers in nursing homes in the near future. Turkle interviewed people across different age groups and found that most of the interviewees found this change desirable and expressed more faith in the abilities of robots than in humans. I was quite struck by these sentiments and wanted to explore what this says about how we feel about our families and what we expect from each other in a humorous way.
I was blessed with the cast and crew who made this performance possible!
Cast of Actors:
Narrator: Taylor Grey
Maximer: Chad Furlong
Liba: Heather Zinger
Rocky: Anthony Plassaras
Dad: Patrick Hilton
Rola: Portia Roy
Cast of Robots:
Laura Allcorn
Chris Freeman
Claire Gauntner
Mark Martinez
Michael Martinez
Portia Roy
Crew:
Stage Hand and documentation: Lisa Carpenito
Video and photography documentation by: Tim Lorey
Costuming by: Elizabeth Armstrong, Chris Freeman, Divinder, Claire Gauntner, Angie Lyman, Mark Martinez, Anthony Plassaras, Portia Roy, Heather Zinger
Watch the video here:
P.S. You Won’t Be Needed in the Future from Heather Zinger on Vimeo.
I”ll be continuing to work on these themes and this script in particular. Keep posted for the next performance!
