The River Ridge High School Administraion
Dr. Toni Zetzsche - Principal
Assistant Principals: Danielle Zammetti, Ron Bruno, Jessica Meek & Janene Sullivan
Our Mighty Ladies of the Front Office
Christine Panobianco, Maria Cardenas, Theresa Townsend, Kathy Jones &
Ellie Papapanos
Fine Arts Department
Qasem Abdel-Hadi, Christopher Greco, Theodore M. Locascio, Regina Palazzolo-Vera
VERY SPECIAL THANKS!
Qasem Abdel-Hadi & Lorenzo Santarlasci for taking on the design & construction of the Simpson Masks, Christopher Greco for providing rehearsal tracks and musical instruments, Mike Carlson for his photograhic brilliance, Taylor & Ann LaRoue,
Janell Poulette, Tom Werner & Pro-Copy
Richard D'onofrio, Faith Brooks, Brett Branning (Technical Director),
Bryan Lankston (Lighting Designer), Eric Neubauer, Topher Warren, Garrett Case, Blane Williams, Taylor D'Onofrio, Ben Takitch (Set Construction, Scenic Artists, & Lighting) of The Center of the Arts at River Ridge
The deepest of gratitude to the parents and guardians of the extremely talented students involved on-stage and behind the scenes!
The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
I first became aware of Mr. Burns, A Post Electric Play at the worst period in my high school teaching career. It was while I was having to teach from home at the beginning of the pandemic. The school musical and The Florida State Thespian Festival (where we had been chosen to showcase the play The Amish Project) were canceled. The show did not go on anywhere after March of 2019.
I came across an article that strongly made the point of the theatre’s need for assembly. If history has taught us anything it is that it is elemental. There is a basic human need, despite efforts to program it out of us, to come together in a space and share a story together. The theatre requires the live interaction of performer and audience. Anything else is not theatre, especially on platforms like Zoom. The article used this play as an example of that premise. Also, I have been a huge fan of The Simpsons since the series began mainly due to its uncanny ability to predict the future.
The play was written in 2012 and it is eerily prophetic in this story that a worldwide pandemic reduced the number of the human race enough to cripple the ability to keep vital services running. The lack of qualified personal with institutional knowledge in nuclear power plants is what renders the country and the world into a nuclear wasteland with no electricity. When the play begins, we see a group of young people who are desperately trying to remember the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons. They soon move from survival mode into having a purpose in life when they realize that what they, and by extension everyone still alive, need to be distracted from their troubles by entertainment and in a world with no electricity, there can only be live theatre.
Why The Simpsons? It became apparent to me that one of the reasons is that the television show has just entered it’s 33rd season. Therefore, it has had a profound effect on our culture and touches more than one generation. Also, one of the many dark aspects of the comedy in the animated series is that the main source of employment in Springfield is at the nuclear power plant.
Why 75 years later in Act 3? At this point in the story, there is still no electricity. Without this vital component that should continue human advancement, civilization has actually de-evolved. Therefore, things from the culture are mythologized and the story they were desperately trying to tell with painstaking accuracy has now been turned into an expression of what the human race is going through in that moment.
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