CO-CREATORS: Torien Cafferata, Amberlin Hsu
WRITER / DIRECTOR: Torien Cafferata
SCENIC / LX DESIGN: Amberlin Hsu
SOUND DESIGN: Connor Brousseau
STAGE MANAGER: Shelby Lynn Lowe
PERFORMER: Kyle Kuchirka
VENUE: AKA Gallery/Paved Arts, Alt-Alt DIY Performance Festival 2017

cell (2017)

A lone performer stands accused of an unknown crime, trapped in an invisible cell in the dark. The only lights are a blue worklight hanging above it, providing life to the performer, and whatever light emits from the audience’s phones, where different scripts are being delivered one Facebook message at a time to audience groups delineated along invisible criteria. Audience volunteers are invited to take turns at the Operator’s table to play a game of interrogation and simulated torture, invoking the moral quandaries of the controversial Milgram Experiment. On the table is a microphone with which to speak to the performer and a black smartphone filled with questions and prompts that come in live from anonymous audience members. The goal of the game: find out what crime has been committed and procure a confession in twenty minutes.

The performer has no knowledge of what the audience is being texted, they know only the rules of the game:

1) Unless you are in danger, do not leave your cell, and;

2) Keep your light on by any means necessary.

The audience must uncover the truth from the inside of a carceral machine designed to obscure it. Inspired by the whirlwind that was the 2016 U.S. election, cell seeks to probe our ideas of carcerality, justice, language, and how social media algorithms trouble these things, influencing the people we believe and the verdicts we deliver.