Playwright Regina Taylor Adapts Theater To The Age Of Social Media In Stop Reset

• Liz Lauren
• A scene from Stop. Reset.: J, the janitor from the future (Edgar Sanchez), and his boss, Alexander Ames (Eugene Lee)

At the outset of Regina Taylor’s new drama Stop. Reset., currently onstage at the Goodman, Alexander Ames, a Chicago book publisher, is struggling to figure out how to adapt his business to the e-book era. The play’s original inspiration was the closure of Taylor’s favorite bookstore, her neighborhood Borders, five years ago, but as it developed, Taylor realized that the subject was far bigger than that.

In practical terms, that meant setting up a website, stopreset.org, where members of the community can respond to the show and to changing technology, whether by making artwork or just by writing or speaking. It also contains supplemental material, including extra characters who never appear onstage. “People have the choice of entering the play before they get to the theater,” Taylor explains, “and then can continue the dialogue when they go home.” One notable example: in the play, Mr. Ames talks about how his wife left him to move to Africa, so a group of students visiting from Africa through WorldChicago imagined Mrs. Ames’s adventures in Malawi.

Stop. Reset. Through 6/21: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 Pm, Tue 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $10-$40.