31 Down radio theater presents

UNIVERSAL ROBOTS

in association with the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator 

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Artistic Director: Ryan Holsopple

Written by Ryan Holsopple and Shannon Sindelar,

based on and borrowed from the writings of Karel Capek

Directed by Shannon Sindelar

Video Design by Mirit Tal

Scenic Design by Thom Sibbitt

Lighting Design by Jon Luton

Costume Design by Tara Fawn

Stove Design by Benjamin Brown

Sound Design and Music by Ryan Holsopple,

with additional design by Mike Rodasta and Benjamin Brown

Sound Engineering by Mike Rodasta 

Cast:

Karel Capek/Primus: Justin Tolley

Josef Capek: Thom Sibbitt

Olga/Helena: Kelly Tuohy

The Great Caspian as Alquist: Ryan Holsopple

Leni/Robot: Shauna Kelly

Domin: Jonathan Valuckas

with the special guest voice of D.J. Mendel 

This work is set at the beginning and the end of World War II and is an elegy for two brothers, Karel and Josef Capek. 

In the summer of 1938, Adolph Hitler voiced active support of the highly publicized demands of the German population of the Sudetenland in the Republic of Czechoslovakia, for annexation of the region into Germany. Fearing the outbreak of war, European leaders met in a conference at Munich on September 29, 1938. Present were Eduard Daladier from France, Neville Chamberlain from England, Mussolini representing Italy, Hitler, and Ribbentrop. Representatives of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union were not invited. 

Wanting to avoid the possibility of a new European war, Chamberlain and Daladier submitted to Hitler's demands very quickly; the conference was over the next day. The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary.

Chamberlain boasted after the conference that they had achieved "Peace for our time," but the Munich Agreement quickly became a symbol of the western powers' appeasement of Hitler, which led to the outbreak of World War II one year later. 

Karel Capek was one of the most influential Czech writers of the twentieth century; he wrote detective stories, travel books, fairy tales and books on gardening, however, he is most famous for his science fiction works R.U.R and War With the Newts, illustrating his fear of impending social disasters, dictatorship, violence, and the unlimited power of corporations. In the late 1930s, Capek's work focused on the threat of brutal Nazi and fascist dictatorships.

Soon after it became clear that the Western allies had refused to help defend Czechoslovakia against Hitler, Capek refused to leave his country--despite the fact that the Gestapo had named him

Czechoslovakia's "public enemy number 2." Karel died of double pneumonia on December 25, 1938, shortly after part of Bohemia was annexed by Nazi Germany. 

Josef Capek was a writer, painter and illustrator. He wrote plays with his brother Karel and coined the term 'robot' in 1920. The word is derived from the noun robota, meaning "forced labour, corvée, drudgery" in the Czech language and being the general root for work in other Slavic languages.

Due to his critical attitude towards Nazism and Adolf Hitler, Josef was arrested after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. He wrote 'Poems from a Concentration Camp' in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, where he died in 1945. 

All visual images in this production are taken from the works of Josef Capek.

A very special thanks to Hal Eagar, Jan and Dale Sindelar, Susanna Lee Holsopple, Betty Holsopple, Morgan Pecelli, Ian Allen, Brendan Regimbal, Ann-Marie Reilly and the American Folk Art Museum, Kevin Lindamood, William Cusick, Yoav Gal, and Melanie Neergaard. 

All sounds are created originally by Ryan Holsopple and are also assembled from sounds from the Free Sound Project. Licensed under Creative Commons. For the Free Sound attribution list please GO HERE. 

UNIVERSAL ROBOTS was developed with the facilities and support of Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre’s Digital Performance Institute artist residency program http://digitalperformance.org

For information about the sounds and their sources please visit our:
Freesound CC attribution list