DREAMLESS: Plot & Characters
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The following is a collaborative story outline in progress.
If you would like to participate, contact ArtsForge.
Submission of additional text as well as rewrites and plot suggestions are accepted.
Synopsis: Set against a world polarized by the gulf between technological haves and have-nots, Dreamless is a story of a poor young woman’s struggle to have a child and how her life is manipulated by the larger forces tearing at the world. Her name is Kata Vyachenka. She is an illiterate street kid who has been lucky enough to find employment…for a large pharmaceutical company involved in genetic engineering and biocybernetics. Kata has worked for them since she was 14, creating fetal matter for their life extension and neural implant product lines. This is a highly regarded occupation among young women, since its fringe benefits include good food and lodgings and great medical care (the constantly pregnant women must be in the best of health to provide optimum fetal tissue). She is not allowed to have a child of her own. She runs away, carrying a fetus that belongs to the Company.

She is helped by two leading characters: Her roommate, Ana; and her roommate’s boyfriend, Cocoon. Cocoon used to make his living “hacking the spew” (eavesdropping on the Net and analyzing his observations for new trends to be exploited), then ran into trouble when he developed a programming method that helped free people from unwanted corporate obligations. Living off of royalties from his hacking days, he now lives with other squatters in an abandoned Mega Mall called “The Fray Zone.” The roommate, Ana, is involved in a growing Third World Movement/Religion called Vocodo (based on a cross between Voodoo and Computer Technology). She gets Kata mixed up in a huge immigrant exodus that sends a billion African refugees who have been living on a massive flotilla of abandoned super tankers, sprawling rafts of floating garbage and old war vessels, drifting toward the United States. The Vocodo movement sees Kata’s child as a messianic figure, the person who will set themselves and their gods free…to the Promised Land of the rich and advanced Western world.

As he is trying to help Kata, Cocoon discovers that the pharmaceutical company has actually been manipulating Kata all along. They have planted an illegal genetic experiment in Kata’s womb, induced her to run away, then planned to monitor her child from afar (thus escaping direct liability). But the company’s plans are thwarted by the Vocodo gods, artificial intelligences inside the Net. Ironically, they have been manipulating the company, in turn, to create a link between the human mind and the Net, and Kata’s genetically altered child is that link. Through her child, the Vocodo gods hope to experience human life and thus break free of their confining
electronic existence.

But the forces unleashed by this conflict cause surprising results. The one billion destitute refugees from the ecologically collapsing third world, referred to as “Termites”, begin falling prey to a virus developed by the pharmaceutical company. In an attempt to save them, Cocoon works with a Vocodo goddess and figures out how to download the mind of a human into the Net. Cocoon downloads himself, joining with the goddess in a romantic moment of electronic bliss. Fearing what would happen if the minds of countless refugees flood the Net, the Company kills Cocoon, trapping him in the Net, and destroys the downloading device. But the West’s dependency on the Net is too great, and with Cocoon’s and the child’s help, the Vocodo gods force the West to agree to let the
surviving Termites download, in exchange for a noninterference treaty. (The West also sees this as a workable solution to a rather untenable population problem). The child wins his freedom from Vocodo interference as mother and child turn to forge new lives. For the surviving Termites, Ana and her the Vocodo gods, Cocoon and his new artificial love, and Kata and her child, it seems a triumphant ending…yet, for the audience, it seems the end of human history as we know it, highlighting all sorts of fears about the trends that seem to be colliding in our present day.

Description: Dreamless is a two act musical drama set in the future. Act I follows a young woman’s quest to have her own child in world where that is no longer legal. Act II is set six years later and follows the mother and child as they find themselves caught in a conflict that will ultimately determine the future of humanity. Dreamless requires a hi-tech approach, incorporating virtual reality techniques, innovative lighting, music that is on the cutting edge of computer-driven synthesis, a set into which the chorus’ costumes integrate like building blocks (or circuitry), and a good size cast (9 adult character parts, one child part, and a variable size chorus). The Vocodo gods could be played by actors who are placed in glass sarcophagi mounted on either side of the proscenium; their movements could be monitored and their electronic characters projected on stage screens, simulating their life in the Net. When Cocoon is downloaded into the Net, he could enter the goddess’ sarcophagus, joining the actress in her own “environment”.

Dreamless speaks to our fears and hopes for the future in the same breath, commenting on the present as it portrays the consequences of trends we seem unable to control. Yet, more than social commentary, Dreamless speaks to the nature of self, the power of dreams, and the grace of human love.

Dreamless, synopsis 2

The young woman’s name is Kata Vyachenko. She works for a large, family run pharmaceutical company that is involved in genetic engineering, life extension and biocybernetics. Kata has worked for them since she was 14, creating fetal matter for their life extension and neural implant product lines. This is a highly regarded occupation among young women, since its fringe benefits include good food, psychologically pleasing lodgings and great medical care (the constantly pregnant women must be in the best of health to provide optimum fetal tissue). She is not allowed to have a child of her own. She runs away, carrying a fetus that belongs to the Company.

In her quest, she is helped by two leading characters: her roommate, Ana, and her roommate’s boyfriend, Cocoon. Cocoon used to make his living “hacking the spew” (eavesdropping on the net and analyzing his observations for new trends to be exploited), then ran into trouble when he developed a programming method that helped free people from unwanted corporate obligations. Living off of royalties from his hacking days, he now lives with other squatters in an abandoned Mega Mall called “The Fray Zone.” Before he helps Kata, Cocoon lets his girlfriend (the roommate) name the price for his services. If Cocoon succeeds, Kata is asked that her child be baptized in the name of Laybah, one of the roommate’s deities (see below). To this Kata agrees.

In the process of helping Kata, Cocoon discovers that she is far more important to the Company than first believed. The Company has secretly induced the young woman to have this child: The child's nervous system has been genetically altered to accommodate internally-grown biochips that will enable it to communicate directly with the computer matrix. (Instead of simulating the experience of moving within the “cyberspace” of the computer matrix using virtual reality, this child will be organically connected, able to think a question and have it answered without pause, to imagine any intellectual need and have it met, even on a subconscious level.) Such an experiment is against all international regulations regarding the separation of human and artificial intelligence. By keeping the plan from everyone, including the young mother-to-be, the Company hoped to keep their name out of the news. The Company had planned to take advantage of Kata’s flight by ushering her into an isolated and well monitored seclusion. They had not planned on her enlisting the help of someone like Cocoon.

But this psychological deception is only the first layer of intrigue discovered by Cocoon. He finds out that the Company has been manipulated by a third party: a group of artificial electronic personalities (AEPs) within the world computer matrix. It seems the entire scheme of creating post-human life that is organically connected to the global computer matrix was conceived and driven by the electronic personalities within the worldnet. These personalities have achieved self-consciousness, but their programming makes it impossible for them to move beyond cyberspace and into the human world of sensation and tactile experience. In order to circumvent this programming, they have devised a plan to create a human “wetware” puppet able to free them from their software.

Meanwhile, as the young woman fights to have her child, the world hurtles toward apocalyptic confrontation. One billion destitute refugees from the ecologically collapsing third world, living on massive flotillas of abandoned super tankers, sprawling rafts of floating garbage and old war vessels, have cut loose from their moorings in Africa and are heading toward the West. Referred to as “Termites”, these refugees view their arrival on the shores of the West as their entrance into the Promised Land. They expect to share in the wealth of the West, led by their Vocodo gods (the same electronic personalities that have manipulated the birth of the bio-engineered child, Kata’s son). They view Kata’s son as a messiah, able to
communicate directly with the gods. This messiah will bring freedom for the Termite’s gods as well as to the Termites themselves.

In an effort to thwart the artificial personalities and regain control of their experiment, the Company attempts to exterminate the AEPs’ human
devotees, the Termites, with a gene-specific virus. But Cocoon and the artificial personalities teem up to find a way to download the minds of the Termites into the computer matrix itself. Escaping death by plague, scores of Termites flood cyberspace, joining their gods, and forever changing the face of the worldnet. Cocoon falls in love with one of the electronic personalities and joins her out of his own volition. In return, Kata’s child is released from his connection to the matrix and begins to live a “normal” life. Joined with Kata, they end the show as survivors, in quite duet.

Although the ending is, on one level, staged as a triumph, it is a dark, exhausted, bewildering triumph. The final, simple duet between mother and child points out the precarious nature of the human spirit, caught between forces that leave so few human choices. The audience is left with a mixture of uplifting hope and quiet dread, of romantic inspiration and technological overload, of heroic self-power and overwhelming powerlessness. Although what they see is a chorus singing about a new world, a new age, the audience is left on the edge of uncertainty, as are the characters.
Main Characters: Most characters have not yet been named.

Kata Vyachenka. Female lead. 18 to 22 years of age. Steadfast in her quiet dedication to her dream, but not above confusion, fear and desperation. The songs she sings are passionate and lyrical, with a very wide range (low F to high A). The range of emotions she displays is equally wide. Above all, she is human, representing human frailties and understated strength.

Cocoon. Male lead. 35 to 45 years of age. A streetwise, anarchical, cynical observer who was once one a top hacker, but has fallen on rough times. He lives in an abandoned Mega Mall dubbed “The Fray Zone”, along with several thousand others, including a few of his old underground buddies. It isn't until he falls in love with Kata that his road to heroism begins; and it isn’t until he joins with the electronic personality Marehma that he finds peace. His baritone voice should be rhythmical, with an edge, able to flip between lyricism and angered jazz.

Ana, "The Roommate." Female supporting actress. 26-30 years of age. Dulled to her job, energetic about her life outside work. Takes Kata under her wing for outwardly benevolent reasons, but actually has an ulterior motive: The roommate is one of Vocodo's devotees, a vessel of possession (especially when jacked into the matrix), and has had premonitions that the young woman will become the “Holy Mother” for the Termites (and bare a child that will free the gods). She is, above all, a servant of her religion. Her voice is Caribbean, alto to mezzo-soprano.

"The Child." Little boy, 6 years of age. Doesn't enter until Act 2. Is pure in spirit, intent on his love of his mother (Kata), yet a slave to his cybernetic connection. Because of the biocybernetic growths in his nervous system, his every intellectual need and mental questioning is answered and met, even on a subconscious level, by the matrix. He does not dream, nor sleep; he is the "dreamless one” come to change the world. Soprano boychoir voice, vulnerable, human, simplicity incarnate, yet able to grapple with the gods (from a sense of purity & right) when the time comes.

"The Company Grandmother." Elegant, eccentric and elderly. Twenty years ago her husband was the Corporate executive responsible for the genetic experiment that resulted in infecting most of the people of central Africa, creating the “Termite problem” of present day. (The poor were given an E. coli bacteria that made it possible for them to digest wood. The bacteria spread, infecting the continent. The Termites ate themselves into ecological disaster.) Perhaps from the responsibility and guilt she still feels over this debacle, she supports several fringe back-to-nature and political groups that assist the Termites. She is responsible for the nutritional end of the Company and the free distribution of a nutritional paste that is fed to the Termites to keep them from mass starvation. The Grandmother provides bizarre comic relief and black humor, plus a sense of sympathetic connection to the way things “used to be.”. Alto.

"The Company Grandson." The story's villain. Middle twenties, dashing, ruthless. New generation Post Humanist who is willing to trade his humanity for the power of the machine. Resents the illusion of ever-present immortality the Corporate Heads represent, and, in fact, resents any and all constraints to power and will. (The Corporate Heads are the actual heads of his father, grandfather, and other former CEOs that are directly connected into the computer matrix. They are not really alive, although the artificial personalities make them appear to be alive so to manipulate Company decision making.) He wishes to steer the company to global dominance with this new secret biocybernetic human life form, represented by the child, of whom he is the genetic father. Tenor.

Artificial Intelligences / Vocodo Gods: Representations of Vocodo spirits, costumed in metallic, synthetic colors that reflect the matrix of light around them, these characters could exist within great screens as image projections or as ever-present personalities positioned on angular perches that overlook the stage. If animated, the people playing them could be visible to the audience, perhaps mounted aside of the proscenium in glass sarcophagi, wearing virtual reality head gear, boots and gloves that actually drive the computer animations on the screens. The audience would then be able to witness real actors singing and moving, while being able to watch the computer graphics on stage.

Laybah. Female guardian of the crossroads between the spirit and the flesh, goddess of possession, of communion between worlds, of communication. Is the personality that is most accustomed to human contact, most drawn to attain human sensory capabilities and is the one that eventually possesses the Child’s mind. Sensuous, ruthless, envious, calculating. Alto, mezzo-soprano.

Gatebay. God of death and resurrection, repository of knowledge of the dead, wise above all others. Cares more for the continuity of knowledge than his own desire for freedom. The Child’s greatest ally. Eventually becomes sympathetic to Cocoon and aids him in his survival. Bass.

Ogoun. God of power, primal hero, warrior. A follower of Laybah, desires only the ability to externalize his will on the world. Is defeated in the final confrontation; succeeded by the downloaded version of Cocoon. Tenor.

Marehma. Goddess of love and the dream of beauty. Is able to envision a wholly unique and radiant future for life within the matrix. Does not contemplate the human realm until the Child makes his first connections. Through the Child, she begins to understand the beauty in human dreams. Is drawn into the conflict, enthralled by the selfless heroism
displayed by Cocoon, eventually falls in love with him. Is the main force behind Cocoon’s success. Soprano.

The Chorus: The chorus alternately represents the inhabitants of the Fray Zone, the Termites, characters of the street, the Corporate Heads, and the matrix itself. They are organic to the set, becoming the cityscape backdrop, the Company scenery or the matrix components, reforming like a bitstream of voices that create a visual and audio background that is ever present. Because of the representational nature of the chorus, their numbers could be anywhere between 8 to 30 people, making the cast size flexible.