It’s not every day you get to see a brand-new, science-fiction fantasy world on stage, but that is exactly what will happen this month when Creative Movement Practices and The Octarine Accord open the world premiere of Synapse.
The play, the first of a planned trilogy by actress-turned-playwright Shanae’a Moore, follows a young woman with synesthesia who learns that the neurological condition that causes her senses to mix, which she’s long thought to be a flaw, may actually be a power that can save the world.
When Synapse opens on December 13 at the MATCH, audiences will be introduced to a fantastical world where a special form of energy runs through all living creatures, though people with synesthesia are predisposed with an ability to see it and manipulate it. Though she says she never considered herself a playwright, Moore was inspired to develop Synapse as part of her MFA at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland following her own dyslexia diagnosis during graduate school.
“For the first time in my life, as a 29-year-old, I’m meeting with someone and getting tools on how to live with dyslexia and work as an actor with dyslexia. I had only doggy-paddled before that point,” says Moore. “The story was born out of me dealing with all of that and being intrigued and thankful for the help and feeling relieved and also exploring nature in a new way.”
The story was originally conceived as one play, but the head of her department advised her to break it into three parts. Moore was also told her story shouldn’t be a play at all.
“A trilogy is unreal in the theater world, which is almost the reason why I have to do it,” says Moore. “I was like, ‘Well, it is a play, and it’s going to be a play because I love nothing more than seeing something on stage that you absolutely know how it works, but you don’t care. You’re seeing magic, and you’re experiencing magic, and it’s also in the moment, so you can’t overthink it. You just have to go along with it. And I think fantasy theater is special because of that.”
Director Andrew Roblyer has a particular affinity for works like Synapse. Roblyer is the founder (and lore keeper) of The Octarine Accord, a production company that focuses on speculative fiction storytelling, i.e., science fiction, fantasy, and horror or, as Roblyer puts it, “the stuff that we don’t see as often on stage.”
Roblyer first encountered Synapse as Creative Movement Practices, under founding artistic director Sarah Sneesby, prepared to stage a sensory reading of the play, drawn from the audio drama Moore produced for her MFA, in February 2023. “I remember leaning over to [Moore] and saying, ‘Hey, when you guys put this up, I want in, even if it’s just to sweep the floors.’”
Sneesby serves as the production’s movement director and the magic of this world, dubbed the Synath, will be represented by an ensemble of movers along with lighting effects, an original score by Robert Meek, and a little theater technology. Moore admits that bringing the world of Synapse to life “is impossible to do” but adds that “when you present people with a script that is impossible to do, they come up with brilliant ways of handling it – better than if you CGI it.”
Roblyer says the production will meet the play’s challenges by “leaning into the humanity of theater.”
“In film, special effects and CGI are all designed to be invisible,” says Roblyer. “In theater, I think when we create magic on stage, oftentimes it’s not about hiding it because we just can’t. Instead, it’s about really leaning into the power of the audience’s imaginations and the power of the shared space of theater to create special effects and elements to the story that represent the magic, that represent the novelty of the world in ways that are surprising if not invisible.”
Despite its challenges, for Moore, there is no better way to represent neurodivergence than magic because, she says, neurodivergence is magic.
“I think because our brains are not capable of accepting the world the way it is, it creates a much richer experience at times, a different experience with the world. I have a very specific relationship with letters and numbers and memorization tools, and I think it’s incredibly cool. Other people are like, ‘Oh, it’s such a shame that you can’t read.’ I can read. It’s just a different way, and I think it’s magical…I see it as magic, so I think to represent it, the best way to do that is magic,” says Moore.
Roblyer hopes that by incorporating these magical elements and telling this story through the lens of speculative fiction, audiences will find it easier to relate to than a more realistic story about neurodivergence.
“The beauty of speculative fiction in general is that it allows us to tell stories that resonate with a wide swath of people,” says Roblyer. “Whether it’s Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, Lord of the Rings – whatever it is, they’re all stories about humanity. They’re all stories about connection and relationship and our need for both, and our fight for agency and autonomy and all of these things that are so relevant to us today, but they do that in a way that helps us let our guard down a little bit.”
The show will play with different forms of synesthesia by mixing up the senses (i.e., making something auditory into something visual and vice versa), which Moore sees as “a way to help neurotypicals or even those with different kinds of neurological differences, experience a little bit of synesthesia, experience a little bit of magic, or make peace with their own neurodivergence and find something to celebrate in it.”
Moore says that a sense of celebration is precisely what she hopes audiences will take away from Synapse.
“No matter where you are, what you’re going through, it’s really hard to celebrate right now. There’s just too much going on,” says Moore. “I think just to see yourself in a way that’s celebratory, to understand that exactly as you are created, exactly as you are in this moment, is exactly what is needed for our planet, that you are valuable and seen and there is a place to celebrate you…I want everybody to leave going, ‘Hey, I’m worthy of being on this earth,’ because they are.”
Performances of Synapse are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Fridays and December 14, 16, and 19, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and December 15 through December 21 at the MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit theoctarineaccord.com or creativemovementpractices.com. $35 (with a pay-what-you-can performance on December 16).
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
