Distance

I was invited to write a play for an online 10-minute play festival. It's always nice to be invited! So I agonized in the way I usually do, and wrote one and sent it in. I hope they like it, because otherwise I will probably feel the need to write another one. The main stipulation is that the play should be designed as what I would call a "Zoom-native play". Each actor appears on a screen, and there's no pretense that they are "really" in the same physical location. The story somehow must involve people relating at a distance. Like a "telephone play" but with visuals.

 
It may be silly, but one of my worries, when writing for a short play festival, is that my play not be too much like the other plays in a festival. It's a danger when there's a shared theme.

Of course, the immediate inspiration for this is the way so many of our relationships moved online with this Covid crisis. But they specified that they were not looking for a negative take on the technology of long-distance interaction. They said they would be happy with the celebrations of our ability to communicate vividly over distance.

We've been living an existence
With an extra wall of distance.