How to Survive an Apocalypse by Jordan Hall
A Flying Start Play – Giving a Stage to New Professional Playwrights
June 2 – 11, 2016
Produced by Touchstone Theatre in Association with PTC and the Firehall Arts Centre
A young and successful urban couple becomes convinced that their lifestyle is coming to an end. They become ‘preppers’, hoarding supplies and learning to hunt. But their obsession takes its toll, and they are both forced to imagine the apocalypse without the love of their life. A romantic comedy about the end of days, showcasing the talents of our fifth Flying Start playwright.
“Whether we’re peeling away moral, sexual, economic, political, ecological, religious or scientific orders, our fascination with the Apocalypse seems to be fuelled by our inevitable fascination with our own mortality— we all have a personal Apocalypse waiting somewhere in our future…”
–Jordan Hall, Playwright
SHOW RESEARCH:
THE SURVIVALISM MOVEMENT
Survivalism is a movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who are actively preparing for emergencies, including possible disruptions in social or political order, on scales from local to international. Survivalists often acquire emergency medical and self-defense training, stockpile food and water, prepare to become self-sufficient, and build structures (e.g., a survival retreat or an underground shelter) that may help them survive a catastrophe.
KNOW YOUR APOCALYPSE JARGON:
- Alpha strategy: The practice of storing extra consumable items, as a hedge against inflation, and for use in barter and charity.
- Crunch: A general term for a major, long-term disaster.
- EDC: Everyday carry. What one carries at all times in case disaster strikes while one is out and about. Also refers to the normal carrying of a pistol for self-defense, or (as a noun) the pistol which is carried.
- Goblin: A criminal miscreant
- Golden horde: The anticipated large mixed horde of refugees and looters that will pour out of the metropolitan regions when the apocalypse happens.
- O.O.D.: Get out of Dodge (city). Fleeing urban areas in the event of a disaster.
- Pollyanna or Polly: Someone who is in denial about the disruption that might be caused by the advent of a large scale disaster.
- Prepper: A synonym for survivalist that came into common usage during the early 2000s. Used interchangeably with survivalist much as retreater was in the 1970s. Refers to one who is prepared or making preparations.
- SHTF: Shit hits the fan. A term used generically by survivalists to describe disaster situations.
- WROL: Without rule of law. Describes a potential lawless state of society.
- Zombie: Unprepared, incidental survivors of a prepped-for disaster who feed on the preparations of others.
- Zombie apocalypse: Used by some preppers as a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for any natural or man-made disaster and a clever way of drawing people’s attention to disaster preparedness. The premise of the Zombie Squad is that if you are prepared for a scenario where the walking corpses of your family and neighbors are trying to eat you alive, you will be prepared for almost anything. (Though there are some who are seriously preparing for a zombie attack.)
Source: Wikipedia
