Science Fiction Onstage

This thesis examines the growing relationship between science fiction and the stage. Contemporary playwrights must overcome the expectations created by computer- generated imagery inherited through the lenses of film and television. Therefore, playwrights have collectively been required to innovate with creative storytelling and stagecraft to achieve futuristic scenarios onstage. In this study, I compare the evolving relationship between humans and their technology as explored in Jennifer Haley’s The Nether, Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, and Mickle Maher’s Song About Himself. I also investigate the adaptation of science fiction to the stage, as Edward Einhorn attempted with his 2010 adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? for Untitled Theatre Company #61 in New York. Lastly, I consider the development of my own science fiction script, Corona, which reimagines the Greek myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur aboard a spaceship.