←Recommendations of D-Pad (Stage Edition)

InterAct presented D-PAD as part of our 2015 Core Playwrights Weekend. D-PAD takes on the world of independent video gaming with thoughtfulness, humor, humanity and integrity, highlighting why people are drawn to the form while holding it accountable for the sexism ingrained in its bones. We were thrilled to participate in the advancement of this piece.

Jeremy Gable has written a play that is both a critique on the world of video games and a love letter to that world. The dialogue feels so natural coming out of mouths of these complex characters as they interact with each other in such relatable ways. The use of theatricality with the scenes that take place in the world of the game make me so anxious to see this fully produced.

D-Pad explores the video game world through a unique and thoughtful lens. The structure of the play highlights the theatricality of the gaming world in a way I have not seen done before, while never losing the heart of the story and very real, grounded relationships between the characters. It's both funny and heartbreaking, and provides awesome roles for female actors.

There's no doubt this deeply theatrical and highly-charged play demands to be staged. Alex's desire to create something beautiful and invent new worlds for gamers and her regrets over her promises made to her sister are both exquisitely rendered and laugh-out-loud hilarious. The escalation of cyber-bullying is horrifying and real. The entire journey is satisfying---at Great Plains Theatre Conference we discussed, among other positive responses---the urgent need for plays that both examine how gender is presented and the troubling negativity within the gaming community---Gable gives us a story that delivers both extremely well.

A deeply relevant play about sexism in the video game industry told through a very human lens. Seeing this play at The Great Plains Theatre Conference was a definite highlight. At once funny and heartbreaking, Jeremy has crafted a play that embraces the theatricality of the video game world with a beautiful beating heart at its core.

It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Jeremy Gable and their play "D-Pad" as a finalist for our 2015 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one of 59 finalists out of more than 1,300 submissions, it is the value of the page that has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process. This play examines many contemporary issues—gaming, social change, online bullying, gender parity—in a highly theatrical, structurally imaginative format.

The violent sexism of the gaming world collides with the deep pleasure of creating worlds. Funny and thoughtful.

D-PAD is strikingly and increasingly relevant in the discussion about sexism in gaming, forcing us to look into the depths of what many consider an escape but what many, also, consider a den of bullies. Mashing technological innovation with well-formed drama, D-PAD is necessary reading, and Gable should pride himself on having created something not just new but indeed, sorely needed.