Playwright and screenwriter José Rivera brings his new play Your Name Means Dream to New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) in Long Branch, New Jersey for a limited run from October 31 to November 24. He is also directing the show. In this play, Rivera examines how we live, die, and form our sense of self in a world that’s increasingly saturated with technology.
Your Name Means Dream tells the story of Aislin who is getting older, and suffers the inevitable indignities of being human — and hates technology. Stacy, her caregiver, is perfectly toned, doesn’t age, and is utterly in control — because she’s an AI robot. And there’s a new algorithm out there called AOS or Approximation of Soul. Does Stacy have it?
Rivera has a very impressive background. He is the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award for the movie, “The Motorcycle Diaries.” He has won two Obie Awards for playwriting, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Grant, a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Playwriting, a Whiting Award, a McKnight Fellowship, the 2005 Norman Lear Writing Award, a 2005 Impact Award and a Berilla Kerr Playwriting Award.
Woman Around Town had the pleasure of interviewing José Rivera and gained some interesting insights into his career, Your Name Means Dream, and some of his future plans.
We like that José Rivera’s early years inspired his writing. “It started around the kitchen table when I was growing up,” he said. “My family never owned books but they were natural storytellers, especially my mom and grandparents. I think I learned everything I needed to know about stories by listening to their passionate ghost stories and love stories.”
Your Name Means Dream has a unique and very timely theme. José explained what inspired the story. “I was obsessed with aging (I’m in my 60s) and with AI, which was beginning to explode 5 years ago when I started the play,” he said. “I was wondering what it would be like to have no human contact as an older person and have to rely on machinery for all my needs. Would it be heaven or hell? Writing this play was my way of dealing with this unknown fear.” He further talked about the show’s timeliness. “We are all in the thralls of his technological revolution that will impact every phase of our lives — AI is the tip of the spear. And it’s already here and we need to know how to adapt.”
We wanted to know how the show has been developed and José’s impressions of working at NJ Rep. “Years ago I wrote this play for two of my favorite actors, Sara Koviak and Anne O’Sullivan,” he said. “I really wanted to tap into their unique strengths as performers — and to give them exciting challenges. Together we developed the play over numerous readings and workshops. The play had its world premiere, with this cast, last summer at Contemporary American Theatre Festival. I directed the production. When NJ Rep approached me for a production, they were happy to keep the original team intact. The design team at the Rep is a collection of their resident designers. They were all new to me and the actors but we’ve turned into a strong creative team together.”
José told us a little about the future of Your Name Means Dream. “There are several upcoming productions of the play — at Theatre J in Washington, D.C., at Theatreworks in Hartford, CT, and at Luna Stages in NJ. We’re working on getting the play into a NY theatre (any commercial producers out there?).”
As for upcoming projects: “For Sony I’m writing a re-make of the 1980s film La Bamba. Early next year I’ll be starting work on a baseball movie produced by Lin-Manual Miranda. In the next year, Sara and I will be workshopping a new play called A Lunar Rhapsody. My adaptation of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude will premiere on Netflix this December.”
To learn more about New Jersey Repertory Company, please visit the website.
Top photo credit: Lela Edgar
