The Webster Theater, located in Hartford, CT is currently doing a run of The Jury Experience, an interactive courtroom drama, featuring the participation of its audience. That’s right: as audience members, you’ll get the opportunity to participate, answering questions on your phone via QR codes and contributing to the final verdict at the end! The Jury Experience is a traveling show, and while the cast varies from city to city, the script and its general concept always stays the same.

When a massive oil spill threatens the reputation of his company, marketing representative Jaime Kurtz (played by TV Land’s Younger Nico Tortorella), must quickly strategize how to fix this pending problem. In the span of one day, playwright Jordan Jaffe takes us through a surprisingly entertaining journey, as Tortorella and his faithful friend (Aaron), played by W. Tré Davis, try to come up with ways on how restore their company’s dependability. This fresh and quick-witted dark comedy had its world premiere at Theater 511 at Ars Nova in New York City.

Everybody, a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, is a reflective piece of theater, a poetic exchange of dialogue and in its purest form, a true example of a morality play. Based on the original 15th century morality play Everyman, this modern-day adaptation thematizes God and Death in a seamlessly metaphorical construct, interwoven with its own flare for comedic satire. 

Dramaturgy plays a key component in the world of storytelling. To put it simply, it provides us with historical background and contextual understanding. In doing so, dramaturges inevitably become pioneers for social and cultural awareness. Dramaturgy is based on research and analysis. It asks you to examine the different layers of a given show, whether it be its historical, social, cultural and/or political backbone. More so, it encourages us to take that new-found knowledge and apply it to ourselves, as thespians and as people.