This production is part of the MFA Acting Summer series, matching Northwestern’s emerging MFA actors with visionary Chicago directors to create exciting and unexpected collaborations in contemporary theatre.

By Bekah Brunstetter 
Directed by Seth Bockley   

Jane is trapped in her middle school computer lab playing “The Oregon Trail” for what feels like hours. The game becomes life and rips us back to the trail, 1848, where we travel in a covered wagon with Jane’s great-great-grandmother. As Game moves us, back, forward, and back again, Now-Jane and Then-Jane’s sadnesses are delicately juxtaposed in this play-meets-videogame about depression, Then and Now. 

Director

Seth Bockleyis a writer and theater director specializing in literary adaptation. Stage credits include King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild (Under The Radar, NYC and Soulpepper, Toronto); 2666 (adapted from the novel by Roberto Bolaño, Goodman Theater); Wilderness and Basetrack Live (En Garde Arts, NYC), Caught and The Ugly One (Sideshow), The Twins Would Like To Say (Dog & Pony), and world premieres by Lauren Yee (Samsara), Jason Grote (Civilization) and Philips Dawkins (Failure: A Love Story). Writing credits also include: February House (The Public Theater, NYC) and the libretto for The Crash (Oldenburg State Theatre, Germany). An inaugural member of Chicago’s Goodman Theater Playwrights’ Unit, for three years he served as Writer in Residence at Goodman Theater. He teaches performance and literary adaptation for the stage at the University of Chicago. | sethbockley.com