In this four-character, one-act play, JAMES has lost his employment as an adjunct professor of English after austerity measures have forced education cutbacks, leading to the loss of his house to foreclosure and subsequent auction. In a desperate, quixotic attempt to spare his beloved former home from imminent demolition, he defies the new owner — real estate developer GINA — and stages a sit-in protest by occupying the living room and refusing to leave. Who will prevail in this battle of wills and ideology? And, THE OCCUPANT asks, what will be won — and lost — in the end?
Now available in a Fomite Press volume with SELF STORAGE on Amazon.
VARIATIONS
I’m always in favor of a director having final choice in casting a play. But for THE OCCUPANT, I have specified the character JUNE as Black, and the characters GINA, JAMES and JOE as White. No overt issues of race are explored in the play; however — especially in an era of intense focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion — casting characters specifically by race bears significant subtext, and rightfully so.
I propose, therefore, that THE OCCUPANT offers a unique opportunity for an adventurous producer and/or director to mount a double-bill — either as a matinée/evening presentation, or two consecutive evening performances — featuring variations in racial casting. Contrasting back-to-back performances, I suggest, can give audience members of any race an occasion to examine, or discover, their own implicit biases. Perhaps a matinée features the original, suggested racial casting, while an evening performance features the same play but with GINA and JUNE as White and JAMES as Black, for instance — or other variations a producer or director may imagine.
And if your objective is to experience this play only in the theater of your mind, cast it as you see fit.
-Bill
Bill Dam 