10, 9, Too Late, Blast Off!
Brandeis Theatre Department
Written by Nate Rtishchev
Directed by Kat Lawrence
May 2021
Role: Aleksei Tolstoy
Moscow, 1925. Three of the early Soviet Union’s most prominent writers enter a Zoom call to discuss their new works; what follows is a meta-theatrical journey featuring a humanoid dog, a subway to Mars, and a visit to a very strange zoo. A product of the Zoom-only era, Blast Off uses different online formats to adapt three works from early Soviet science fiction: Aelita by Alexei Tolstoy, Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov, and Order No.2 to the Army of the Arts by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Together, these writers explore and debate censorship, artistic integrity versus personal safety, hope for the future, engaging with and making art in turbulent political moments, and the reason we make art in the first place.
