Support & Resources

• General Community Mental Health Resources curated by Public Health-Seattle/King County: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/~/media/depts/health/communicable-diseases/documents/C19/community-mental-health-resource-guide.ashx 

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Dial 988, toll free from any phone, or use the chat function on the website.

• Cyberbullying Resources at StopBullying.gov. This resource page is for someone who needs help now to stop bullying, including online. https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/get-help-now

• Gay City - Seattle’s LGBTQ Center, serving as a hub for LGBTQ individuals seeking affirming and responsive resources, wellness, and community. - Resource database at https://www.gaycity.org/resources/

• Ingersoll Center - an organization by and for transgender and gender nonconforming people providing mutual support through peer-led support groups and support navigating resources. Health care guides available at https://ingersollgendercenter.org/guides/

• The Northwest Network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse - provides 1:1 Advocacy-based counseling for survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence. Call 206-568-7777; https://www.nwnetwork.org/contact-impact

Baseline Synopsis (See below for More Detailed Story Information)

When Nils's ex-girlfriend dies suddenly, he is dragged back into a toxic online roleplay scene he swore he'd never return to. He'd been doing okay sticking to his seven-year plan for getting over their breakup - but now, everyone either blames him or expects him to have answers, and he's getting nasty anonymous messages that might be coming from beyond the grave. A nuanced examination of identity, trauma, assault, grief, and mental health through an online world.

Baseline Content Note

"All New Cells" contains references to suicide, child sexual abuse and self harm, which are discussed, but not depicted; themes include transphobia and online bullying.

Spoiler Warning!

Story Line, Content Information, Themes, Fandoms, Memes and References, and Dramaturgical Information

“Becoming is exhausting.”

Dramaturgical Themes

All New Cells is a powerful story of disconnection and a search for identity contrasting how we live IRL (in real life) and how we present to the online world. The importance of role-play gaming and the construction of new personalities in new bodies is woven through the fabric of Nils’ story and personal development, as is the theme of creating power for and over yourself in a world where people often feel powerless. All New Cells touches on the way in which the digital ghosts of our past come back to haunt us. Ultimately, as Nils’ story shows, we can find agency for ourselves in a digital world and carry that agency into the life we live in the real world. We have the power to redefine ourselves.

Director Alison Kozar notes that we are exploring queer characters in a queer affinity space and there are aspects of these characters that have emerged or are emerging and are still in flux, as queerness so often is.

Synopsis (may contain…Nay! definitely contains spoilers):

All New Cells tells the story of Nils, a transgender man in his early 20s who is recovering from the trauma of an abusive sexual relationship with Lux, a cool femme lesbian chick in her early 30s. In order to escape Lux and to move forward with his transition, Nils has abandoned the vampire fiction online roleplay and writing board he joined at 16.

“It's not like we broke up and I got sole custody of Sailor Moon and Sherlock.”

The story is told almost entirely through instant messaging conversations between the characters, including Lux’s best friend Aeon (a mom in her early 30s) and Moody, an intense and self-focused 20-something. Despite their largely digital interactions and geographic separation, they are deeply involved with one another on a personal and emotional level. All New Cells is steeped in memes and references: the theme of vampire fanfic is particularly crucial as the characters explore elements of consent and control, violation and power, angst, and the feeling of having been altered forever for the worse.  Regardless of which fandoms the observer may belong to, the characters are instantly recognizable in their passion for expressing their fandoms through activities ranging from fanfiction to  cosplay and fan conventions to online RPGs.

Content Information (aka, The Trigger Warning)

At the top of the show, we learn that Lux has committed suicide, after a rejected attempt to connect with and apologize to Nils. Aeon shares the news with Moody and with Nils via IM. At the same time Lux’s death is announced, Nils begins receiving nasty public but anonymous hate messages. Everything Nils, Aeon, and Moody believe about themselves changes as they discover who Lux really was and her choices as leader of their online community. In particular, Aeon and Moody learn in more detail about Lux grooming Nils for an inappropriate sexual relationship from the time he was 16, through gifts, through explicitly sexual vampire fiction writing exchanges, and on trips to fan conventions.

“The internet raised us”

Moving between the present and the past, through chat log conversations and the occasional IRL interaction, these individuals struggle with all the things that we recognize in our own lives. Grief. Guilt for sins of omission. Seeking forgiveness (and granting it or not.) Exploring their identities. Choosing to become who they are in a world where knowing who you are is not always easy or comforting. Director Alison Kozar notes that we are exploring queer characters in a queer affinity space and there are aspects of these characters that have emerged or are emerging and are still in flux, as queerness so often is.

Why this show? Why now?

The board and staff of The Shattered Glass Project are dedicated to bringing stories to the stage that are unique and which have been selected for telling by theatre artists whose voices have been suppressed.  Trans and GNC folks and women are being suppressed like hell right now, all across the United States and the world. Every day, across the US, it is becoming less safe and less legal to simply BE. We are not going to let this story go untold.

We find universality in the specifics. All New Cells is a very specific story that encompasses enormously universal themes around finding out who we are. Nils represents every kid ever in terms of finding his identity, but his struggles are greater. Aeon stands in for all the parents watching a loved child grow and become; as well as for those of us who only see what we want to see until we can no longer ignore what is happening right in front of us.

We are all nerds of one sort or another. Artistic director Rebecca O’Neil, a straight cisgender GenX white woman, grew up on the original Star Trek re-runs, MASH, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, and a hefty side dose of watching her brother play Dungeons & Dragons in the early 1980s. Her fan fiction was a mashup of Vulcans and dragons going through pon farr. Plus George Harrison and Harrison Ford. Sorry.

Director Alison Kozar, mixed arab neurospicy queer, grew up on Douglas Adams novels, X-Files fanfic, and did MUD cartography. (Don’t know what a MUD is? Imagine if World of Warcraft was entirely text-based.) They did vampire roleplay with some of the original folx from White Wolf, and freeform roleplay on IRC (the forerunner to Discord.) They have put more time into Mass Effect than you knew was possible or healthy, and they probably have a headcanon for that show you like.

Playwright Aliza Goldstein, a queer Jewish millennial, came of age thoroughly immersed in the worlds of Star Wars fan fiction and play-by-post forum roleplay games on Neopets, Gaia Online, and standalone websites, and knows first-hand how theses spaces can foster both creativity and exploration as well as… incredibly poor interpersonal boundaries. She was not allowed to play video games as a child, which naturally means she now works in game development as an adult.

Who Are We?

Cast Members

Nils - Kasper Cergol

Aeon - Jasmine Lomax

Creative Team

Playwright - Aliza Goldstein

Casting Director - Buddy Todd

Calling Stage Manager - Brandon Ellis

Properties & Set-Dressing Design - Jessamyn Bateman-Iino

Sound Design - Madelyn Zandt

Graphic Design - Lara Kratz

Producer/COVID Safety Officer - Rebecca O’Neil

Cast

Creative Team