{"id":116257,"date":"2024-11-07T09:55:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T14:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=featured-work&p=116257"},"modified":"2024-11-08T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T16:46:03","slug":"how-to-not-save-the-world-with-mr-bezos","status":"publish","type":"featured-work","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/featured-work\/how-to-not-save-the-world-with-mr-bezos\/","title":{"rendered":"How to NOT Save the World with Mr. Bezos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How to NOT Save the World with Mr. Bezos<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

November 7 – 24, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre starts its 2024-2025 season by giving Amazon founder Jeff Bezos a very, very<\/em> rough time. In How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos,<\/em> a brutally funny satire by Maggie Kearnan set in \u201ca parallel now,\u201d Bezos sits for an interview in the context of a law which limits personal wealth to $999,999,999.99. The real subject is the grotesque inequality in today\u2019s economy, and the interview is not what it seems in the beginning. Things began to spiral wildly\u2026 \u201cAs soon as the ending was on the page, I was like, well, there\u2019s no going back now,\u201d writer Maggie Kearnan says with a smile.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Written by Kearnan (GRS’25) and directed by Taylor Stark (CFA’25), How NOT to Save the World with Mr. Bezos<\/em> is produced by Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre<\/a> and the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had in the early days intended for the play to be a two-hander,\u201d says Kearnan. \u201cBut there are some wild things about Jeffrey Bezos in this play that I am making up off the top of my head as a writer. And there are some wild things about Jeffrey Bezos that are absolutely true. And it is important to me that everyone knows the difference between what I have made up and what is absolutely true, especially when it comes to how much wealth he has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Jake Belcher<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Jake Belcher<\/em><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am only just coming down from being scared of this play,\u201d Kearnan says. \u201cI\u2019ve just been trying to throw my worries out the window and stick with this idea of, what do American audiences need now? What do people want to talk about? What will spark conversation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other half of the Fall 2024 rep at BPT is Soft Star<\/em><\/a> by Tina Esper (GRS\u201925), about two best friends and their husbands, whose circumstances\u2014economic and personal\u2014may pull them apart. Despite their wildly different tone, How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos <\/em>and Soft Star<\/em> are in conversation with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Kearnan: \u201cboth of these plays are dystopian in many ways and also hopeful. It\u2019s like, how do you take the power back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cast<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cherry Beaumont: Becca A. Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey Bezos: Mark W. Soucy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact Checker: Robbie Rodriguez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre Offers Prime Comeuppance for Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Wild satire by Maggie Kearnan and a drama by Tina Esper kicked off BPT\u2019s 2024-2025 season<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More in BU TODAY<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Program & Credits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LEARN MORE<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Kearnan (GRS’25) and directed by Taylor Stark (CFA’25), How NOT to Save the World with Mr. Bezos is produced by Boston Playwrights\u2019 Theatre and the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. \u201cI had in the early days intended for the play to be a two-hander,\u201d says Kearnan. \u201cBut there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"featured_media":116263,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"bu_progs_degree-option":[],"dicipline":[127],"school":[130],"unit":[442],"program":[126,150,146,132,147,161,145,431,152,432,140],"type-of-space":[176],"location":[186],"artist":[],"format-medium":[359],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-work\/116257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-work"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/featured-work"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-work\/116257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116308,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-work\/116257\/revisions\/116308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bu_progs_degree-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_progs_degree-option?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"dicipline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dicipline?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-space","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-space?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=116257"},{"taxonomy":"format-medium","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format-medium?post=116257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}