Organized Chaos

By Pravin Wilkins

Director: Bryan Moore

Dramaturg: DeRon Williams

Synopsis: A university is shaken by a battle between workers, their union, and their bosses, over a new contract. Meanwhile, students in the university theatre program begin to question their responsibilities to the workers, as indirect beneficiaries of their labor. As workers begin to face reprisal for organizing, and faculty face unexpected consequences for aligning with the movement, each character must ultimately pick a side: to strike or not to strike. Organized Chaos explores the intersections between workers’ struggle for fair wages and benefits at a university hospital and the exploitation of graduate students and adjunct professors at that same university. By centering the perspectives of union workers, students, and faculty, this piece calls into question the positionality of the academic world in conversations about capitalism and labor rights.