The March People’s Choice Award goes to…

The people have spoken… The March People’s Choice Award goes to Matthew Park for his short play, Project Selene, presented as a staged reading Simulcast & On-Demand via Vimeo Live on March 27th. Congratulations, Matthew!

Courtesy of Matthew, we’re pleased to share the first few pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

PROJECT SELENE
by Matthew Park

CHARACTERS
NORIKO ‘NORI’ SHIRASUNA – engineer, 50s
AMIT VORA – astrophysicist, 50s

A space station floating 300 miles above the Earth. AMIT
is standing in the cupola, looking out the bay window
which provides an incredible view of the planet and the
surrounding cosmos.
NORIKO joins him.

NORI
I thought I’d find you up here.

AMIT
(Pointing at the Earth) The glaciers have retreated even further. You see? And further north it looks like there’s
another wildfire in the Tropic of Capricorn. That’s the third one this year. Meanwhile
there’s a hurricane brewing in the Bay of Bengal. I hope they can evacuate on time.

NORI
They should. We’ve sent the reports.

AMIT
(ignoring her) The drought in Tanzania doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up anytime soon. Ken is
monitoring a heat wave in Malawi that’s topped 130 degrees. That’s going to trigger a
flash flood in Mozambique. It seems cruel that the countries least responsible for global
emissions are being hit the hardest.
(pause)
16 sunrises and sunsets every day from up here. It would be beautiful, if I didn’t have the
map key.

NORI
Did you get any sleep last night?

AMIT
I got enough.

NORI
Liar. Your dark circles have circles.

AMIT
I’ll be fine.

NORI
No, you won’t. Our immune systems are already compromised. Microgravity, cosmic
radiation — it all adds up. You need to do what you can.

AMIT
It’s all data.

NORI
What?

AMIT
You, me, Ken, Andy, Liz. We’re just as much a part of the investigation. They’ll poke and
prod at us once we’re back, figure out how time out here has changed our bones, our
blood, our genetic expression.

NORI
It’s helpful data. And it’s not like you didn’t know that was part of this mission.
(pause)
You need a more intensive exercise regime. I’m going to ask mission control to schedule
you for an extra thirty minutes per day. You’re taller than the rest of us; that’s more
muscle mass to atrophy.

AMIT
I know. I just hate those bikes. It feels like I’m pedaling to nowhere.

NORI
Just put on a movie. I’ve been on a horror kick lately. Have you ever watched Misery?

AMIT
No.

NORI
You should. I found it strangely comforting. Careful, your pen is floating towards Venus.

AMIT pulls down his pen and straps it to a velcro
attachment on his shirt.

Join us for our season-ending Best of PlayGround-NY Gala on April 24 at The Producers Club & simulcast! For more info, click here!