FACTS
The intended setting and time of my play:
- Bucknell University (Abandoned)
- The future (2082)
- Post- war
- Post-pandemic
- Dystopian society (Enforced curfew)
- Night Time (Curfew siren)
QUESTIONS
- How long ago did the war and the pandemic end?
- Why was Bucknell abandoned?
- How long has the building been abandoned?
- What caused the dystopian society?
- What was life like before?
ANSWERS
- The war and pandemic took place between 40 and 50 years ago.
- Bucknell’s theatre was abandoned about 50 years ago when the pandemic started, but the campus was used for military training until about 10 years before the play.
- This dystopia was enforced by pandemic protocols such as contact tracing, as well as enforced curfews, and climate change.
- Before the pandemic and the war, the students at Bucknell University were performing a run of Cocktail theatre, a campus tradition.
RESOURCES
The most significant pandemic in recent history prior to COVID-19 was the 1918 Influenza pandemic. It lowered the United States life expectancy by 12 years, and infected about 500 million people. It has taken society over 100 years to recover. People still get flu shots to this day. This article describes the history of different pandemic as well as national pandemic plans, including disease surveillance, school closures, and the use of facemasks. This article helped me to understand what stage of pandemic Cam and Jamie are in and how their society would be responding. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html
The World According to Anna is, like Light the Way Back, a fictional approach to the future. It particularly explores the year 2082, the same year that is referenced in Light the Way Back. Reading a different author’s approach to the same futuristic year was inspiring. In the case of The World According to Anna, the content is very central around climate change. This issue is not acknowledged in Light the Way Back, but could serve as an explanation for the war, or simply the dystopian status of society seen in the play. https://osloliteraryagency.no/book/anna-a-fable-about-the-earths-climate-and-environment/
This article describes a Pennsylvania town that has decided to reinstate their curfew siren. This could serve as a for innocent, or still dystopian approach to the sound heard in the play, but it shows that such a siren is plausible in a town like Lewisburg, PA.
Jessica Albert. “Forty Fort Brings Back Curfew Siren.” Abc – 16 Wnep (Wilkes Barre, Scranton, Pennsylvania), (20181005), 2018. INSERT-MISSING-DATABASE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-SERVICE-NAME, INSERT-MISSING-URL. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022. https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/luzerne-county/forty-fort-brings-back-curfew-siren/523-d1f04151-e9ae-41a7-8c93-27f170e46b6f
This thesis that I read at the library shared a lot of research on the military training that took place at Bucknell University for over sixty years. This information could give the setting a deeper connection to the contextualized war, if such training hypothetically was reinstated.
Elliott, Brian P. “The History of Military Training at Bucknell University from World War I to the Vietnam Era.” 2004.
INSIGHTS
Since my setting is the place in which I currently live, and my time period is 60 years in the future, I wasn’t really sure where to start my research. I decided to take certain concepts and see how they relate to place and time. I was very surprised to read how long it takes for a society to recover from a pandemic. It was fascinating that towns in nearby Pennsylvania are actively using their curfew sirens. These facts started to make the content of my play more and more realistic. I also knew that I wanted to research Bucknell’s history not only because it is the setting, but also because it will resonate with a Bucknell audience. I was shocked to learn that the school has a history of military training. It was also very important to me that I look at other author’s perceptions of the future because it is such an open ended concept. I wasn’t surprised to find that many if them end in dystopia or science fiction, but I was interested in the fact that The World According to Anna, like Light the Way Back has elements of magic.