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Pilot Program (Theatre)

 Pilot Program (Theatre)
type
TVTItem
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Pilot Program (Theatre)
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PilotProgram
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Pilot Program: A Supposition is a play written by Melissa Leilani Larson, first performed in 2015.Abigail and Jacob Husten are a Mormon couple in their 40s. She's an English professor; he works in HR. They're happily married, aside from the pain point of years of infertility. Then they're called upon to participate in a pilot program to restore polygamy to modern LDS practice.If you want to see it, there's a Zoom reading on Facebook here.
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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2023-11-09T17:16:17Z
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2023-11-09T17:16:17Z
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Dropped link to MissionFromGod: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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DBTropes
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_3012325a
type
Exotic Extended Marriage
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_3012325a
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Exotic Extended Marriage: Subverted or Inverted—they're polygamous, but it's not meant to be exotic or sensationalized. The play tells its story as small and personal and relatable.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_332005d9
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Third Wheel
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_332005d9
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Third Wheel: Which one of them is the third wheel evolves throughout the course of the story. In the first scene when Heather arrives, Abigail and Heather are close and Jacob is the third wheel. Right after Heather joins the marriage, Abigail and Jacob are close and Heather is the third wheel. After the birth of their son, Heather and Jacob are close and Abigail is the third wheel.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_42215dce
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Ambiguous Ending
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_42215dce
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Ambiguous Ending: It ends without Abigail coming to any firm decisions about her new life. She's not content in the new polygamous marriage, but neither is she thinking of divorce. The author has commented that this is because it's not a play about the long-term outcomes of polygamy, it's about the start, and that any long-term conclusion would retroactively color the beginning. If things improve with time, then all's well that ends well and the initial hardship would be written off as growing pains. If it ends in divorce, then the whole thing was doomed from the start.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_46c810b3
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Desperately Needs Orders
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_46c810b3
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Desperately Needs Orders: Downplayed to a realistic degree. Jacob is mild-mannered and biddable, not at all the leader you'd expect from a polygamous patriarch. Abigail and Heather both feel the Spirit calling them to do this. Jacob, in contrast, does not. But the church asked it of him, and Abigail decided she was on board, and so he went along with it.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_4782e35b
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Meet the In-Laws
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_4782e35b
comment
Meet the In-Laws: Abigail tells a story of bringing Jacob home for the first time and how her father endorsed him as a Nice Guy.
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_4782e35b
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_49f6a9e4
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Most Writers Are Writers
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_49f6a9e4
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Most Writers Are Writers: Abigail is a writer, and she uses her blog as an outlet. It provides a framing device for Audience Monologues.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_507a98ba
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"Near and Dear" Baby Naming
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_507a98ba
comment
"Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Their baby is named Thomas Scott Husten. Thomas after Heather's favorite uncle, and Scott after Abigail's maiden name. With his father's family name Husten, this gives him one name from each branch of the family.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_62907b90
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Bottle Episode
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_62907b90
comment
Bottle Episode: The play is set entirely in the living room of the Husten home. Only one set is required, and a relatively simple one at that. This, along with its Minimalist Cast, makes it easier for a theatre to put on.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_63357bac
type
I Just Write the Thing
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_63357bac
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I Just Write the Thing: The author (a single woman) first envisioned the story as being focused on Heather, as a single woman coming into an established couple. But then Abigail took over the writing process.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_66907f54
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Hourglass Plot
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_66907f54
comment
Hourglass Plot: Heather begins the play as a single woman, and ends it as a married mom. Abigail begins as a married woman and then — as she's eclipsed in the relationship — ends the play feeling more like a single woman.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_70af5e15
type
Anthropic Principle
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_70af5e15
comment
Anthropic Principle: Abigail has to be the kind of person who would say yes because that's the Inciting Incident of the story.
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Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_70af5e15
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_8e3b5b4d
type
Minimalist Cast
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_8e3b5b4d
comment
Minimalist Cast: Abigail Scott, Jacob Husten, and Heather Mendoza—that's it.
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_8e3b5b4d
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Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_8e3b5b4d
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_926425c8
type
Religious Stereotype
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_926425c8
comment
Religious Stereotype: Averted. The characters are all Mormon—really devout Mormons willing to completely upend their lives for a religious calling. But they're not stereotypical. They're liberal and educated, and written quite subtly. This is part Write What You Know (the author's own demographic) and part because to do otherwise would make the characters less relatable to a general audience and easier to dismiss.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_a16d511d
type
Insecure Love Interest
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_a16d511d
comment
Insecure Love Interest: There's an implied, underlying sense that both Abigail and Heather think polygamy is a "lesser" form of marriage, particularly suited to women who are "damaged goods" in one way or another. Being barren and an old maid respectively, they view themselves as such. When this idea is brought up, it's verbally refuted, but that doesn't banish the idea for either of them. At one point Abigail talks about looking at the damaged goods on the clearance isle at the grocery store, clearly metaphoring them to herself.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_a81216dc
type
Too Much Alike
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_a81216dc
comment
Too Much Alike: As friends, Abby and Heather were drawn to each other because they were alike—You Remind Me Of Myself. But as sister wives it gets… stickier.
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Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_a81216dc
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bc97f0c6
type
Jealous Romantic Witness
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bc97f0c6
comment
Jealous Romantic Witness: A common thread among real life non-monogamists is a skeptical or deconstructionist view of jealousy, not taking it at face value. For example, it's not that witnessing their PDA is inherently painful, it's that you're insecure because you haven't received enough affection yourself lately. Such a mindset is absent here. Abigail doesn't try any sideways approaches to jealousy. She faces it very bluntly and head-on, and it's agonizing.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bdf0640e
type
You're Not My Father
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bdf0640e
comment
You're Not My Father: Inverted. In a moment of anger, Heather yells at Abigail that Thomas isn't her son. She says it as an exhausted and frazzled new mom, and apologizes as soon as she's said it. But she can't take it back; Abigail can't unhear it.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bec0417c
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Happily Married
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_bec0417c
comment
Happily Married: An important facet is that at the beginning of the play, Abigail and Jacob are a happy, stable couple of over a decade.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_c5249b29
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Nice Guy
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_c5249b29
comment
Nice Guy: Abigail says this is why Jacob was chosen for the pilot project: he's a good guy, a good husband, a good candidate for Single Woman Seeks Good Man, and would make a good father given the chance.
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_c5249b29
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_d9fe8277
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I'm Standing Right Here
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_d9fe8277
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I'm Standing Right Here
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_dc57d1e6
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Hilarious in Hindsight
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_dc57d1e6
comment
Hilarious in Hindsight: She was almost exactly right. Not 2019, but just one year later in 2020, Senate Bill 102 was signed in, making bigamy only an infraction (ie. on par with a parking ticket) rather than a felony in Utah.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e24e15a6
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Has a Type
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e24e15a6
comment
Has a Type: Jacob has two wives, the second of which was selected specifically for her likeness to the first. Does that mean he has a type? Well… no, actually. Firstly, Jacob didn't pick Heather, and secondly, when he does bond with her, it's over the things they share with each other but not Abigail. They both like musicals (which Abby hates) and driving (she gets motion sick).
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e303d198
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Whole-Plot Reference
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e303d198
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Whole-Plot Reference: Of The Bible story of Sarai and Hagar. An infertile wife picks out another woman to have children with her husband. And it works: the second woman has a son. But then the first wife ends up hurting over it, made doubly painful for the fact that she set this whole thing in motion.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e43130c1
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Interrupted Intimacy
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e43130c1
comment
Interrupted Intimacy: Abigail walks in on Jacob and Heather making out on the couch. The house rules are that PDA is to be confined to the bedrooms.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e7fd5cdc
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Brain Bleach
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e7fd5cdc
comment
Brain Bleach: Abigail walks in on Jacob and Heather making out.
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_e7fd5cdc
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_f32d85ab
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20 Minutes into the Future
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_f32d85ab
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20 Minutes into the Future: The play debuted in 2015, and is set in 2019. This doesn't appear in the dialogue, only the script ("PLACE: Holladay, Utah. TIME: 2019."). Still, Word of God talks about how the play is positioned in history: The Mormon church ended polygamy under extreme pressure from the US government. If the government decriminalized polygamy, would that change things? At the time the play was written, Utah's marriage laws were loosening. They had recently begun legally recognizing same-sex marriage (Kitchen v. Herbert, 2013) and the Browns of the Reality TV show Sister Wives had challenged Utah's criminal polygamy law and won, having their charges dismissed (Brown v. Buhman, 2013). It seemed somewhat possible that polygamy could be decriminalized in the next few years, so the play was set in 2019. Hilarious in Hindsight: She was almost exactly right. Not 2019, but just one year later in 2020, Senate Bill 102 was signed in, making bigamy only an infraction (ie. on par with a parking ticket) rather than a felony in Utah.
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_f32d85ab
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_f4f3252e
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Law of Inverse Fertility
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_f4f3252e
comment
Law of Inverse Fertility: Abigail and Jacob really want a baby. After three miscarriages and no luck with IVF or adoption, they've given up hope of that happening. They bring Heather into their marriage in part because they expect she can have a baby. And she does. Heather's pregnancy could be considered a subversion or aversion of this trope—a woman who wants a baby easily has one. From Abigail's point of view, though, the trope is still present (albeit non-standard). She does want Heather to have a baby, but even so it's agonizing to watch.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_ff17ccf1
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Innocently Insensitive
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_ff17ccf1
comment
Innocently Insensitive: Near the end of the play, Heather suggests a family road trip. She and Jacob like driving; Abigail is prone to motion sickness. Heather knows this, though it's apparently slipped her mind. She isn't being mean spirited, but she's also not pausing to give Abigail much consideration.
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 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_ff2ceef1
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Old Maid
 Pilot Program (Theatre) / int_ff2ceef1
comment
Old Maid: Heather is 33, and not married. Within Utah Mormon culture, this is relatively late to be single. She's single by circumstance, not by choice, although she's tried to embrace it. There are things she legitimately likes about being single, but she does also have suppressed longing for a relationship. When Heather asks Abigail and Jacob if they think this is her only chance to get married, they deny it, but that doesn't banish the thought.
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Pilot Program (Theatre)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Pilot Program (Theatre)
hasFeature
Ambiguous Ending / int_f4f04a35
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Anthropic Principle / int_f4f04a35
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Exotic Extended Marriage / int_f4f04a35
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Old Maid / int_f4f04a35
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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Theatre of the 2010s / int_f4f04a35
 Pilot Program (Theatre)
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20 Minutes into the Future / int_f4f04a35