Cambridge theater companies Central Square Theater and Moonbox Productions were recognized by the Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) at the 43rd Elliot Norton Awards June 1. Moonbox received the award for Outstanding Music Direction for “Crowns,” a musical celebrating the women of the traditional Black church, and Central Square Theater’s “The Moderate” received awards for Outstanding Scenic Design, Midsize or Small (Sibyl Wickersheimer and Jared Mezzocchi), Outstanding Sound Design, Midsize or Small (MIT instructor Christian Frederickson), and Outstanding New Script by playwright Ken Urban.
Cambridge Day spoke with Urban about writing a play mired in the internet’s darkest recesses. “The Moderate” tells the story of Frank Bonner, a content moderator whose job requires him to look at sexually explicit, racist and violent posts so he can keep them off social media.
During the play, three walls of giant screens display images that Bonner either accepts or blocks. Some audience members found these images so disturbing that they walked out during the play.
Urban, a senior lecturer in theater and director of dramatic writing at MIT, understands why some people left. In the early stages of development, he said, “We talked about blurring out a lot of the footage.” But he and the other members of the creative team ultimately decided against it. Showing people in the audience the graphic images puts them in Frank’s shoes, “walking with him on that journey.”
