This previous March, Theatrical Outfit gave 4 proficient playwrights the chance to develop and produce their very own items as a part of its Launchpad collection. Falling below the umbrella of its Made in Atlanta program, the collection was a part of its bigger mission to empower and uplift Atlanta-based theater artists. On July 21, that mission continues as Theatrical Outfit will host a staged studying of Abe Johnson’s new play Cabin 6 Is Not Okay, with a studying of Emily McClain’s Syran-0 following on July 22.
Johnson (they/them) and McClain (she/her), each Atlanta-based playwrights, have been in residency engaged on these tasks since late 2024. As with the Launchpad collection, they got rehearsal house and dramaturgical help from Theatrical Outfit Affiliate Inventive Director Addae Moon, and the remaining was left as much as the playwrights. Nevertheless, in contrast to Launchpad, which was designed with the aim of empowering playwrights to change into their very own producers, these workshops are aimed toward serving to the chosen artists develop and fine-tune their items in hopes of getting ready them for full manufacturing.

Johnson’s Cabin 6 Is Not Okay is a one-person, darkish horror comedy a couple of camp counselor fighting the dearth of help from the camp’s administration and the inherent depth of working with adolescents. Johnson attracts closely on their very own expertise as a highschool trainer to make clear the disturbing tradition that always warps younger boys’ minds. “As soon as I began educating, I used to be like ‘Oh, younger males are usually not OK, and I don’t see anybody actually writing about this,’” mentioned Johnson. “I believe there’s something very deeply unsuitable, culture-wise, with what’s happening with younger males.”
McClain’s Syran-0 is, as described by the playwright, a “darkish tech romance” partially impressed by Cyrano de Bergerac, through which protagonist Alfie decides to make the leap into web courting and enlists an AI software program he has constructed to assist him determine what to say. Issues take an existentialist flip, nevertheless, when Syran-0, the AI, realizes that they’re in love with Alfie.
“Think about if the story of Cyrano de Bergerac was a Black Mirror episode,” mentioned McClain. The story interrogates society’s use of AI, exploring the place it might be helpful and the place it might be detrimental. “I used to be interested by that symbiotic partnership you will have with these AI assistants and the place that might begin to go off the rails.”
What is especially notable about each of those works is the differing approaches Johnson and McClain have taken to the residency course of. With this system designed to be tailor-made to the playwright, the 2 of them have been capable of function on very completely different timelines.
McClain has been engaged on Syran-0 for over a yr and entered the method with a full draft, whereas Johnson began with an idea and an overview. Due to this, McClain’s residency has primarily been spent workshopping and refining her script, whereas Johnson has spent most of their time creating the script in live performance with their director, Charis Sellick, and actor Matt McVay. And whereas McClain wrote the play and is now trying to hear it on its ft, Johnson wanted to see the little that they had written on its ft to determine what they wanted to put in writing subsequent.

Whereas these differing approaches converse to McClain and Johnson’s strategy to writing, additionally they converse to the person performs. We will see this within the various ranges of staging that each readings can have. McClain describes her studying as “not very staged,” with primary choreography and a few minimal sound results used to create the digital panorama of the manufacturing. Johnson’s far more interactive work will characteristic viewers engagement, lighting cues, props and a variety of different parts designed to intensify the physicality of the play.
“The theatrical recreation of the script,” Johnson mentioned, “is that [the main character] is continually speaking to both the advisors, who’re the viewers members, or he’s speaking to off-stage campers.”
What we expertise are two very completely different performs Theatrical Outfit has managed to create space for. Whereas these works little question converse to the expertise and creativity of Atlanta writers, additionally they converse to the flexibleness afforded by the Made in Atlanta program and the way that flexibility helps make that expertise shine.
The place & When
Made in Atlanta summer time residency staged readings are at Theatrical Outfit tonight, July 21, and tomorrow, July 22. Tickets are $5.
84 Luckie St. NW.
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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based author, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has labored with theaters such because the Alliance, Actor’s Categorical, Out Entrance Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe College, the place he earned his bachelor’s diploma, and the College of Houston, the place he earned his grasp’s.