Matt Steinberg's SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE To Premiere Via Zoom

The premiere of Socially Unacceptable, written by Matt Steinberg and directed by Ran Xia, will be presented on Zoom, May 31st. The performance will be at 6:00pm EST, and all proceeds will be donated to Harlem Grown. Tickets are available for purchase here, or a free registration is available here. The performance will run approximately 65 minutes, with an intermission.

The play follows three Facebook content moderators who are hired to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeling lucky to have a job, these new employees spend their days in a virtual world, zoom conferencing with teammates for full work days. As they screen the site's most violent and offensive posts, these content moderators begin to deal with the dangerous psychological effects of the job, all the while facing the threat of a pandemic. As the quarantine continues, their lives become increasingly interconnected both on and off screen. Socially Unacceptable explores the growing conflicts between big tech and health, and the cost at which our digital world looks the way it does.

Socially Unacceptable is produced by Joaquin Acrich. The cast will feature Annie Hamilton, Suraj Partha, Mieko Gavia, Olivia Rose Barresi, and Finn Kilgore.

Matt Steinberg (Playwright) was a playwright with the NYU Gallatin Theater Group where he had the first workshop of his play The Better Party. He has since gone on to develop work with multiple theaters in New York including The New Group Theater, Primary Stages, and The Tank. In 2019, Matt's TV pilot was a finalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. Matt has worked as the assistant to Steven Levenson,  during which time he served as the showrunner's assistant on FX's limited series FOSSE/VERDON, as well as assistant to playwright on DAYS OF RAGE (Second Stage) and DEAR EVAN HANSEN (Music Box). 

Ran Xia (Director) is a Shanghai born, NYC based interdisciplinary theatre artist. Her plays have been seen on stages around New York City, including Pomegrenade at IRT; Harmony at HERE Arts Center, [ai] at The Brick, and many more. Member of Pipeline Theatre's PlayLab 2020. She is currently a Resident Director at The Flea (Serials, etc.) and The Tank (Inaugural Artist of the Year). She directed the world premiere of Ben Gassman's Independent Study, and US premiere of Ailís Ní Ríain's The Tallest Man in the World. She wrote and directed Creative Time's The Privilege of Escape (created by Risa Puno), co-authored Exquisite Corpse Co.'s The Enchanted Realm of Rene Magritte, and the audio/visual installation version of Echo at the Memory House on Governors Island. Assistant Directing credits include: The Invention of Tragedy (by Mac Wellman, Dir. Meghan Finn at The Flea), The Great Leap (by Lauren Yee, Dir. Taibi Magar at Atlantic Theater Company), Two Mile Hollow (by Leah Nanako Winkler, Dir. Morgan Gould at WP Theatre), and Refrigerated Dreams by Carrie Mae Weems, Nona Hendryx, Francesca Harper, and Niegel Smith at Joe's Pub. Ran is a staff critic at Theatre Is Easy and Exeunt. www.ranxia.info