Nathan Dame

Twenty years ago in Junction City, Utah, a 12-year-old girl named Josie went missing. Her disappearance became a news media sensation, becoming part of the local lore, even when police, the press, and the public lost interest. For just as instantly as Josie’s disappearance emerged as a nationally unifying tragic event, it just as suddenly stopped mattering. Why? Was it due to the public’s short attention span? A police cover-up? Or maybe because of Josie’s race?

Now, a pair of investigators have come to town to interview the people who were directly involved in the events surrounding her disappearance. At first it seems they are detectives reopening the case – or are they lawyers? Or are they documentarians recording a podcast? Or are they studio hacks sent to make a lurid TV movie for our entertainment? Or… all of the above?

Though we may or may not come closer to solving the mystery of Josie’s disappearance, we will all the while be watching ourselves watching these events unfold, and we will learn something about the voyeuristic way we engage with true crime, class, and race, in pop culture.

We are gathered today to see a presentation of short plays written by the students of Ms. Sandoval's 7th grade drama class. A small ensemble of professional actors from the local production of Aphra Behn's The Rover has come to perform their work. The plays are in turn funny, deep, dark, and have a surprising amount of candor about their life experiences and how they see the world they will inherit. Unfortunately, due to a sudden (and all-too-common) tragedy, the students couldn't be with us today to witness their words brought to life.

Siblings Michael and Darryl never had it easy in the foster care system, and the adult world isn't much better. Darryl is adrift, doing less-than-legitimate odd jobs to get by, while Michael has finally hit bottom with her own aimlessness and abusive boyfriend. She is close to giving up on life altogether when she finds hope in the form of two young, female Mormon missionaries. And while their way of life may not be what Michael thinks she wants, she is surprised to find they might be exactly what she needs to survive. But it turns out the thing that is saving her life might be the thing that destroys her relationship with her brother.

The play takes place in a cave on the coast of a small island. In Act One, hundreds of years ago, these five women are the last survivors of a group of 40 who had been hiding in a cave from foreign invaders for over a week. They now have to decide whether they are going to keep hiding and die, or try to escape. They have to learn tactics for survival in case they are caught. In Act Two, in the present, a young woman's body has been discovered in the cave. Is she a local victim of rape and murder? Is she a refugee from another country who washed up on shore? Has she escaped from trafficking? Are these things all in the past or do they still happen? And do they happen here?

Casting note: Racial/ethnic diversity is encouraged. The roles should represent any ethnicity, race, or combination thereof. Please do not try to infuse the characters’ racial or ethnic profiles with any prescriptive meaning regarding class or power dynamic. And please do not attempt through design or dialect to set the island in a specific geographical/historical location. It should not be limited in that way.