Note About the Play

By Jarek Pastor, playwright and director

And Then is about what comes after our acknowledgments of injustice; about the things we change and don’t. While we change the semantics of how we address these issues, and the faces of those addressing them, our mode of confronting these issues often stays the same. We’ve acknowledged the systemic strains exposed by Covid-19. We’ve acknowledged the deeper and older infection of racism and chiefly anti-blackness in this country. We’ve acknowledged the hurtling threat of climate catastrophe… and then what? That “then” has become our now. Now what? Having found fractures in the foundation of our way of life, I would hope we’d seek to repair the structure rather than add new functions to systems proven insufficient.

While working on this production, my dramaturg and friend Nate Ferguson asked me: what is the final calamity pointing to specifically- is it climate catastrophe, is it the continuance of dynamic oppression based on social markers, is it the absorption and parceling of our humanity into marketable resources? Is it social, is it political, is it economic? I must clarify with desperate affection that we no longer have the luxury or pretending these calamities are separate. To continue our society’s path is to ensure this conglomerate catastrophe. Indeed, this belief that we will only have to face one catastrophe at a time only makes it more likely the sky above us will fall all at once.

And Then is a cautionary tale which does not provide answers. Because you know these events. You know these people. In your mental whispers reading these words, you and I and we know there are times when we’ve been these people. This play cannot wonder for you. But I hope this play gives you a feeling. And that with that feeling, you might consider your own way to help keep our collective roof over our heads. Because that’s what community is.