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GEEK THEATER: 15 Plays by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
Geek Theater showcases 15 science fiction and fantasy stage plays by some of today’s top authors and award-winning playwrights and is the first anthology that truly delves into the world of speculative fiction theater. Until recently, modern science fiction and fantasy stage plays have largely gone unnoticed despite the proliferation of plays and performances by theater companies around the world. These plays are an important part of the science fiction and fantasy canon as they represent a unique intersection of authors and playwrights producing work at a time when these genres are flourishing.
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First published November 4, 2014
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About the author
Erin Underwood
7 books38 followersErin M. Underwood, founder & publisher
Erin Underwood’s fiction, non-fiction, and interviews have appeared online and in print. She is the co-author of “The Bag of Holding,” a regular column published by the SFWA Bulletin. Erin is also the founder and editor of the popular fiction literary blog UNDERWORDS and co-edited the Pop Fic Review with Hannah Strom-Martin. She is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program and lives in Marblehead, MA with her husband.
Erin Underwood’s fiction, non-fiction, and interviews have appeared online and in print. She is the co-author of “The Bag of Holding,” a regular column published by the SFWA Bulletin. Erin is also the founder and editor of the popular fiction literary blog UNDERWORDS and co-edited the Pop Fic Review with Hannah Strom-Martin. She is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program and lives in Marblehead, MA with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 28, 2015
I love that a collection like Geek Theater exists, having produced a night of geek theater myself. I began reading it at the start of 2015, and I was not...particularly enamored with most of the earlier, shorter plays, and so I intended to read a play occasionally throughout the year, but that never happened since I wasn't super compelled to pick it up again. As the year neared its end, I gave it another shot, and I was not...particularly enamored with most of the later, longer plays either, and I ended up skipping/skimming most of them. But collections are like that, and tastes differ.
I appreciated the diversity represented in the collection, not only with regards to non-white playwrights like Chie-Hoon Lee, Carlos Hernandez, and Andrea Hairston, but also with regards to subject matter. No two plays here are anything alike, and that's great, as it proves that there is much to explore in the realm of SFF theater. We've got astronauts and clones and zombies and fairy tales and steampunk and anime and post-apocalyptic wastelands and robots and superheroes and whatever else you can imagine. Some plays delved heavily into politics, some talked a lot of science, some were farcical, some were poetic: you might even think they're as different as a non-SFF play collection would be.
Even though most plays did not float my boat, I ought to highlight some of my favorites. Chie-Hoon Lee's "For the Living" was the first winner, a poignant story about cloning and marriage. The Long and the Short of Long Term Memory by Cecil Castellucci is also a strong piece (possibly because it was based on her own short story and thus had a good structure to work with) in which one man wants to forget a specific event and one woman wants to remember everything and their scientific discoveries and emotional journeys intertwine. GEEK! by Crystal Skillman is an absolute delight, as exclamatory as its title suggests, following two cosplaying friends on a mission at an anime convention where fantasy mixes with reality (metaphorically, not literally). DEINDE by August Schulenburg hooks characters up to processors to expand their brains' computing powers and things gets creepy; plus the main scientist is an Indian woman. Hearts Like Fists by Adam Szymkowicz tackles superheroes and love and, uh, fists, I guess. These plays weren't all fully satisfying to me, but they're all ones I'd certainly be interested in seeing staged.
Will there be more Geek Theater? I don't know. I do hope, however, there will continue to be more geek theater.
I appreciated the diversity represented in the collection, not only with regards to non-white playwrights like Chie-Hoon Lee, Carlos Hernandez, and Andrea Hairston, but also with regards to subject matter. No two plays here are anything alike, and that's great, as it proves that there is much to explore in the realm of SFF theater. We've got astronauts and clones and zombies and fairy tales and steampunk and anime and post-apocalyptic wastelands and robots and superheroes and whatever else you can imagine. Some plays delved heavily into politics, some talked a lot of science, some were farcical, some were poetic: you might even think they're as different as a non-SFF play collection would be.
Even though most plays did not float my boat, I ought to highlight some of my favorites. Chie-Hoon Lee's "For the Living" was the first winner, a poignant story about cloning and marriage. The Long and the Short of Long Term Memory by Cecil Castellucci is also a strong piece (possibly because it was based on her own short story and thus had a good structure to work with) in which one man wants to forget a specific event and one woman wants to remember everything and their scientific discoveries and emotional journeys intertwine. GEEK! by Crystal Skillman is an absolute delight, as exclamatory as its title suggests, following two cosplaying friends on a mission at an anime convention where fantasy mixes with reality (metaphorically, not literally). DEINDE by August Schulenburg hooks characters up to processors to expand their brains' computing powers and things gets creepy; plus the main scientist is an Indian woman. Hearts Like Fists by Adam Szymkowicz tackles superheroes and love and, uh, fists, I guess. These plays weren't all fully satisfying to me, but they're all ones I'd certainly be interested in seeing staged.
Will there be more Geek Theater? I don't know. I do hope, however, there will continue to be more geek theater.
November 10, 2019
Most of this was good. Hard to follow sometimes. Nice to branch to other stories and other formats.
September 18, 2017
This is my review from rereading some of the collection September 18, 2017
I am looking for short science fiction plays, so I only reread the short plays in this volume. “Mission to Mars” by Jeanne Beckwith is a two- character short drama set on a space ship that may have nowhere to go home to. “For the Living” by Chie Hoon Lee is about a young couple who have had clones made of themselves. “Rapunzel’s Haircut” and "The Long and the Short of Long Term Memory" by Cecil Castellucci, I didn’t care for the first one. The second one I liked. “The Promise of Space” by James Patrick Kelly is a two- character about an husband/ astronaut with memory issues and his wife a science fiction novelist. “The Zombies of Montrose” by James Morrow is a delightful zombie comedy. (Yes, I am very aware that those three words don’t usually go together, or almost ever.) I borrowed this from Leslie.
This is my review from my September 25, 2015 reading of the collection
My favorite plays in this volume are “The Zombies of Montrose” by James Morrow, is about a workforce to help out poor people, which rich people do not care for. “Faustfeathers” by John Kessel is ‘Faust’ with the very funny Marx Brothers. It works! “Universal Robots” by Mac Rogers is an alternative history; what if “R.U.R” by Karel Čapek, who is a character in this, the play that introduced the concept of robots, was allied with an inventor who created actual robots, which made it so Czechoslovakia won World War II. “Hearts Like Fists” by Adam Szymkowicz is about a super villain and the four super heroines who try to arrest him. I borrowed this from my friend.
I am looking for short science fiction plays, so I only reread the short plays in this volume. “Mission to Mars” by Jeanne Beckwith is a two- character short drama set on a space ship that may have nowhere to go home to. “For the Living” by Chie Hoon Lee is about a young couple who have had clones made of themselves. “Rapunzel’s Haircut” and "The Long and the Short of Long Term Memory" by Cecil Castellucci, I didn’t care for the first one. The second one I liked. “The Promise of Space” by James Patrick Kelly is a two- character about an husband/ astronaut with memory issues and his wife a science fiction novelist. “The Zombies of Montrose” by James Morrow is a delightful zombie comedy. (Yes, I am very aware that those three words don’t usually go together, or almost ever.) I borrowed this from Leslie.
This is my review from my September 25, 2015 reading of the collection
My favorite plays in this volume are “The Zombies of Montrose” by James Morrow, is about a workforce to help out poor people, which rich people do not care for. “Faustfeathers” by John Kessel is ‘Faust’ with the very funny Marx Brothers. It works! “Universal Robots” by Mac Rogers is an alternative history; what if “R.U.R” by Karel Čapek, who is a character in this, the play that introduced the concept of robots, was allied with an inventor who created actual robots, which made it so Czechoslovakia won World War II. “Hearts Like Fists” by Adam Szymkowicz is about a super villain and the four super heroines who try to arrest him. I borrowed this from my friend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews