Presence and process in: In the future we are astronauts

This study is comprised of a play and accompanying critical commentary. My play In The Future We Are Astronauts follows dual heritage siblings Dan, Leo and Mia in the aftermath of Dan’s near-drowning. As Leo tries to save Dan from a coma, Mia tries to save Leo from his own obsessive efforts to save Dan. The project is both a technical exploration of whether a philosophical idea can be rendered as an emotionally engaging piece of drama, and a thematic exploration of that idea through the drama. The idea I explored was that a person can replace an atheistic fear of death with an atheistic gratitude for life, by choosing to focus not on the transience of life, but on the unlikelihood of existing in the first place. The critical commentary primarily discusses the creative process of attempting to convert this idea into a play. It details the decisions I made and the ways in which, as a first-time playwright, my craft-learning went hand in hand with the development of the play. The methodology involved craft study, writing practice, and reflective analysis of what was working. The commentary deals not only with what I did, but with how and why I made the decisions I did, and whether those decisions were effective. I discuss issues including how to illustrate an idea through story, how to develop believable characters, and how to reorganise material that is not having the desired effect, in order to increase its impact. The final part of the critical commentary discusses the way in which the exploration of my idea through drama, caused the idea itself to change. I argue that this change occurred because the process involved converting something abstract into something concrete and ‘lived’ by the characters. I found that my theme developed towards a focus on presence, in connection with Dan’s lived experience of racism, and look at how this connection to presence could also be viewed through the lens of Mia’s experience of sexism. I conclude by discussing how the project gave me a trust in my process, and two rules for future writing that could guarantee both that the process is more enjoyable and that it will produce better writing: I must believe what I am writing, and I must write so that I am engaged by the writing in the moment of writing.