The Antipodes

World Premiere produced by Signature Theatre, New York City.

Paige Evans, Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director; James Houghton, Founder

“The Antipodes” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Director’s Note

Like most of Annie Baker’s plays, The Antipodes captures everyday life in all its detail and complexity. However, as the play progresses, the familiar begins to reach out in order to touch the unknown. To navigate this journey, our ensemble of creators has focused on three questions—three lights that have guided us through the forest of this play during the rehearsal process.

1. What is the point of telling stories when the world is crumbling around you? In the Hollywood writers’ room that is the setting of The Antipodes our characters try to keep the outside world at bay and concentrate on creating. However, the outside world—most acutely in the form of natural disaster—inevitably encroaches. It’s hard to separate global concerns from local, daily life. Likewise, particularly for those in the creative industries, it has become increasingly important in the 21st century to question the relationship between artmaking and the world. Faced with violence on a national and international scale, is the best use of our time to tell a story? Faced with a climate crisis that threatens human extinction, can we justify rehearsing another play? What if the answer to these questions were “yes”?

2. Can we resist overemployment? Due to the privilege of their excellent liberal-arts education, most of our graduates will not struggle with unemployment when they leave our campus. They will, however, struggle with overemployment. Our graduates will work at jobs in which they will be expected to be working or on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The access to information labor that computers and cellphones enable means we are never “off the clock” in today’s world. There are always emails to answer, texts to send, content to create. And those in the creative industries may feel more sharply the pressure of overemployment because they are regularly told (and usually deeply feel) how lucky they are to be doing this work.

3. Who gets to tell whose story? The writers’ room in The Antipodes, like most writers’ rooms in Hollywood today, are still dominated by white men. Considering this lack of diversity, Baker is concerned about whether such rooms are qualified to speak for everyone. When telling stories, is everything/everyone’s story up for grabs? Are the myths and legends from other cultures material we should feel comfortable using? In addition, how much of our own lives are we willing to turn into “content” for the public. If offered the opportunity, would you be willing to turn your life story into a salable commodity? Late in the play, Sandy, the man in charge of this writers’ room, asks his writers to think back to their childhoods and remember a story that changed their life. In that moment, I encourage you to do so as well and to consider, How much is that story worth to you?

These are some of the themes we’ve found in The Antipodes. I’m excited to hear what you find. I hope you enjoy this strange, mysterious (yet familiar), beautiful play.

Special Thanks

Connie Book, Rebecca Kohn, Gabie Smith, Fred Rubeck, Natalie Hart, Kimberly Rippy, Chris Fields, David McGraw, Kevin Otos, Kim Shively, English Department, Seabrook Brown, Cary Worthy, Carpet One (Shannon, Angie & Paul), Brian Faucette from Graham Recreation & Parks, Hotel Liquidation Store, and Kirby Wahl for voicing the character Max

Bios

Bios not available in Archival View