Roundabout: An interactive comedy

by Sean Stewart

Roundabout is an interactive comedy for three and a half actors, designed to be performed on a live streaming venue such as Twitch or Facebook Live. This is a complete script and design doc for use by theater groups who want to put on a show that doesn't require a traditional venue, those interested in designing interactive entertainment, or readers who just want to read a funny story about relatable human beings and don't mind that it has twelve different possible endings. Kit, Sam, and Pat are just starting their first jobs. You’d think a rocky economy and a love triangle would be trouble enough – but then they run into Alpha, Omega, and Phi, three skylarking digital beings desperate to download themselves into human bodies for the first time in 13,000 years. A madcap game of musical chairs begins, with six characters fighting for three bodies in pursuit of love, science, and an unfortunate spot of murder. The play is designed to be performed on live streaming platforms such as Twitch or Facebook Live, and blurs the line between actors and audience. It plays on two stages, the video window AND the chat channel, where audiences can talk to characters not currently in a body, and even choose which characters get to go back into meat, and when. Creator Sean Stewart has won an Emmy, a World Fantasy Award, and a Cannes Gold Lion. His characters and stories defined the Alternate Reality Game genre, including I Love Bees for Halo 2 and Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero. He is the author of the international best-seller Cathy’s Book, and the only Star Wars novel truly focused on Yoda – Dark Rendezvous. No, he probably won’t do the voice. Roundabout was created in collaboration with The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Australia’s world-class theater academy. Its graduates include Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann and Mel Gibson.

445 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Sean Stewart (born June 2, 1965) is a U.S.-Canadian science fiction and fantasy author.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Sean Stewart moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1968. After stints in Houston, Texas, Vancouver, British Columbia, Irvine, California and Monterey, California, he now lives in Davis, California, with his wife and two daughters.

He received an Honors degree in English from University of Alberta in 1987, following which he spent many years writing novels. He gradually moved from writing novels to interactive fiction, first as lead writer on the Web based Alternate Reality Game The Beast.

He served as a consultant on several computer games, and was on the management team of the 4orty2wo Entertainment experiential marketing and entertainment company, where he was lead writer for Haunted Apiary aka ilovebees and Last Call Poker. His newest novel Cathy's Book seems to represent the melding of his two careers, as it crosses the alternate reality game format with a teen novel. In 2007, he and several 4orty2wo co-founders left that company to start Fourth Wall Studios.

Awards:
* Arthur Ellis Award Best First Novel winner (1993): Passion Play
* World Fantasy Award Best Novel winner (2001): Galveston