Plays & Players Brings Sims To Life With Simulations

Plays & Players (P&P), Center City Philadelphia's oldest continually operating theatre, is carrying on its tradition of supporting burgeoning local artists with the world premiere of Simulations by David Strattan White.

Simulations is a fantastical story of the socially awkward Betty who falls in love with her Sims character Jack. Wealth, luxury and Thai food delivered to the door at a moment's whim give Jack a great reverence for the god who created his ideal world. When Betty magically enters Sims world to meet Jack in person, she discovers that her good friend Sue's boyfriend, Christopher Sly, is really a Sims himself. And when Jack comes to life in the real world, Betty is forced to confront the reality of the lover she has invented.

"I wanted to work on Simulations because I was thinking about how people escape," said playwright David Strattan White. "I think that the Sims [video game] is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a technological one. We as a people seem to want technology to transport us away from our problems and on to identical problems. Somehow we relax from our mundane existence by creating an alternate mundane existence. And somehow we find love in our fantasy world, but we hide away from the exact same things we create. It's a rabbit hole in an Escher painting."

White is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist originally hailing from Henry County, Indiana. His play An Imperfect Sonnet was produced in 2008 by The Cardboard Box Collaborative, and his play Reindeer, Magnetosphere will be part of Philadelphia Theatre Workshop's Playshop Festival this spring. White is currently working on his MFA in playwriting at Temple University where his play Still Life Of A Moving Picture recently received a staged reading.

Simulations is directed by P&P's own Cara Blouin, who has been working as a director in Philadelphia since 2009. She was the founder and artistic director of Stone Soup Theatre Arts in New York before spending two years in China directing an arts-basEd English language school. Her most recent directing credits include The Golden Ladder, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Double & Small and Alabama, Alabama, all new plays. She was one of the original directors of the Superheroes Who Are Super! project for Save the Day Productions (Best of Philly 2010), and is the Resident Director for Radio Hound Productions. Cara serves as a chair of the Education Committee at Plays and Players.

Simulations stars Johanna Dunphy as Betty and Ken Sandberg as Jack, both of Zombie! The Musical fame, and Philadelphia-area actors Angela Smith (Sue), Dan Higbee (Sly) and Langston Darby (Rupert).

Plays & Players (P&P) is at once 99 years old and 1 year old, recently changing from a community theater to a professional quality theater. P&P provides diverse work that ranges from high-voltage, edgy premieres to new takes on classics, and encourages local artists to perform and rehearse in its historic Plays & Players Theatre. The 2010-2011 season includes four shows, a new play festival, a playwright residency program and a continuation of the Super Heroes Who Are Super! and Hear Again Radio Project series. P&P will celebrate its 100th Anniversary in November 2011. P&P offers year-round memberships that include both social and entertainment possibilities. To learn more please visit www.playsandplayers.org.

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