Playbill | Director’s Notes

To the audience of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play:

Thank you so much for joining us for this wacky, heartfelt show. This is the second time I have had the opportunity to direct this show, but this experience far surpasses my previous production in every way. 

Think of a show you watch religiously, repeatedly, for comfort. How many times have you watched each episode? How ingrained are those lines for you and your friends? If someone misremembers a storyline or quote, how quickly or accurately do you correct them? Our cast discovered in rehearsal that for their generation, that show is SpongeBob Squarepants. But for my generation, it was The Simpsons.

I have been a fan of The Simpsons since I started watching it at the (possibly too young) age of about 8. My brother and I used to speak to each other in Simpsons quotes almost exclusively, and to this day can pull out a line from almost any episode (Seasons 1-9 and The Movie at least) and understand the reference, or even continue the dialogue. I have been so pleasantly surprised to find that I share this same understanding with many of my colleagues.

This story is about so much more than a shared love of a cartoon show, however. This play is about the evolution of storytelling itself; how one generation’s entertainment can become another generation’s mythology. By combining nostalgia and generational trauma, Act Three provides us a hypothetical look into what could become of the stories we tell, and how we become part of those stories. 

Danica Jenelle Jackson, Director