Playwright's Note: Thinking Caps

This play is not trying to predict the future. It's about how amazing the present is right now and how used to it we all are.

My nieces and nephews don't know a world before cell phones and the Internet. I've never lived in a world without cable or home video. My parents remember when TV was only black and white, and my grandma was 22 when the atomic bomb changed the world. There's no way to fully convey how absolutely revolutionary these concepts are when, to you and I, they've always been around. But, every day we hold better technology in our hands than what sent man to the moon, and we use it to play games.

The moment Martin Cooper at Motorola called his rival, Joel S. Engal, at Bell Labs in 1973 from outside of a New York Hilton practically divides human history into “before cell phones” and “after cell phones.” My nieces and nephews are starting to reach 10 years old as of this production. Someday, they'll tell their kids about a world before 3-D printing, self-driving cars, nano-surgery and possibly even electronic telepathy.

And, we can only imagine how they might tell them.

– Keith Gatchel

Put on your Thinking Caps and join us at the Greenhouse Theater Center

The near future. Websites and the internet are dead. Telepathy and Headsites are the new reality. Everyone who is anyone has a Thinking Cap and they live in a semi-virtual, semi-real world where imagination is the key to success.

But how far is too far when it comes to technology?

Thinking Caps, an original play by Strangeloop Company Member Keith Gatchel, explores the upsides and downsides of virtual reality technology in the near future.

The play will be presented tonight, September 2, as part of the Greenhouse Theater Center's Trellis staged reading series. The reading is free and open to the public. Thinking Caps starts at 7 p.m. at the Greenhouse Theater Complex, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The theater is located near the Fullerton red line el stop and the #8 bus stop at the Halsted Street, Lincoln Avenue and Fullerton Avenue intersection. Free parking is available in the garage at 2316 N. Lincoln Ave.

The play was originally part of Strangeloop Theatre's short play and development series Loopshop.

The staged reading is directed by Strangeloop Co-Artistic Director Letitia Guillaud. The cast includes Michael Houghton Wagman, Maria Burnham, Justin Cornwell, Holly Robison, Nick Vidal and Patricia Tinsley.

The Trellis reading series is Greenhouse's artist development program that showcases plays from playwrights that aren’t otherwise able to find a space for their work to be seen.

Come enjoy half price drinks at the Greenhouse bar, and help support new works by coming to the readings and giving your feedback!