{"id":18968,"date":"2017-05-08T22:47:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-we-wedged-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-their-space-race-into-an-onstage-startup\/"},"modified":"2017-05-08T22:47:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T14:47:35","slug":"how-we-wedged-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-their-space-race-into-an-onstage-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-we-wedged-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-and-their-space-race-into-an-onstage-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"How we wedged Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and their space race into an onstage startup"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_330559\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-330559\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-330559 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/centri-inconstant-630x519.jpg\" alt=\"Centrifuge space play performance\" width=\"630\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/centri-inconstant-630x519.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/centri-inconstant-768x633.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/centri-inconstant-1260x1038.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-330559\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Val Brunetto, Liam Lawe and Zach Sanders take the stage in \u201cThe Inconstant Moon,\u201d Marcy Rodenborn\u2019s update of the Romeo and Juliet story for the commercial space race. Lawe portrayed Elon Musk (shown here persuading Brunetto\u2019s character to fly to Mars) as well as Jeff Bezos. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m the last person in the world to set up my own space startup, but I have a better idea of what might be involved after a week\u2019s worth of whirlwind playwriting for Infinity Box Theatre\u2019s \u201cCentrifuge 2\u201d&nbsp;theater festival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCentrifuge 2\u201d was the second running of an exercise adapted from the 14\/48 Projects, in which playwrights, directors, actors and other theater people create batches of 14 plays in the course of 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p>My fellow Centrifugers and I had twice that long to come up with 10-minute science-themed plays, plus five-minute introductions by science writers such as myself. But there was no time to waste: The scramble continued all the way up to the first technical run-through on Friday afternoon, followed just a couple of hours later by the premiere.<\/p>\n<p>It all started last Monday night, when I was matched up with playwright Marcy Rodenborn, based on a slip of paper drawn from a jar. I had been kicking around a few ideas, and we quickly settled on a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin filling in for&nbsp;the warring families.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"14\/48 - The World's Quickest Theater Festival\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/83735659?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Our star-crossed lovers, Monty and Julie, would be frustrated by the ambitions of their billionaire bosses, but Rodenborn wrote in an interplanetary crisis that forced&nbsp;Musk and Bezos to bury their differences, work together and save the couple.<\/p>\n<p>Rodenborn and I had a stroke of luck when another drawing on Wednesday matched our play up with a pair of actors well-suited to play Monty and Julie, Zach Sanders and Val Brunetto, plus&nbsp;Liam Lawe, an actor who looks eerily like a young Elon Musk.<\/p>\n<p>Lawe played a double role, signaling the shift from Musk to Bezos by slipping on a stretchy skullcap and mimicking Bezos\u2019 signature horse laugh. To learn the billionaires\u2019 manner of speaking, Lawe pored over YouTube videos of their tech-industry&nbsp;fireside chats. He even brought pictures of Musk to his hair stylist so that he could get just the right Muskian makeover.<\/p>\n<p>Rodenborn picked up on the billionaires\u2019 over-the-top rhetoric in her script for our play, \u201cThe Inconstant Moon.\u201d Can you guess which quote is from our make-believe Musk, and which is from our bogus Bezos?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI want millions of people, living and working in space. These will be like Amazon super drones, delivering the future to the stars.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSoon, we\u2019ll be offering self-driving pods that will deliver you through a network of tunnels anywhere you can imagine with your beautiful monkey brain.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I worried that the play would come off as little more than a high-school skit, and that any Amazonians in the audience might take umbrage at seeing their boss portrayed as a drone delivering, um, a sex doll and other goodies. I even worked an apology into my introduction \u2013&nbsp;just in case, in Shakespeare\u2019s words, \u201cwe shadows have offended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But by Friday night\u2019s premiere, the actors and the crew transformed \u201cThe Inconstant Moon\u201d into a laugh-fest on a par with&nbsp;the tragical mirth of&nbsp;Pyramus and Thisbe, if not Romeo and Juliet. Lawe said he heard from several friends who work at Amazon that they loved the show.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 273px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=861341356844736512&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2017%2Felon-musk-jeff-bezos-space-theater%2F&amp;sessionId=3454174fc38dc612b26b58c6a54da2a47cca2ead&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"861341356844736512\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever was there a story of more WOAH,\u201d our Musk says at the end of the play. And I had to admit that I felt the \u201cwoah\u201d associated with all the applause and laughter, and with taking my bow alongside the rest of the company. This must be what it feels like to be at a startup on launch day.<\/p>\n<p>As Shakespeare said in one of his sonnets, summer\u2019s lease has all too short a date. Such was the case with \u201cThe Inconstant Moon.\u201d Friday\u2019s opening night was followed by Saturday\u2019s closing night.<\/p>\n<p>Few tech startups fade so quickly, and we don\u2019t even have a video to preserve the experience. If only there were a crowdsourcing scheme for saving&nbsp;such froths of fleeting joy&nbsp;on YouTube. Hmm, now there\u2019s an idea for a startup \u2026 maybe in time for \u201cCentrifuge 3\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Val Brunetto, Liam Lawe and Zach Sanders take the stage in \u201cThe Inconstant Moon,\u201d Marcy Rodenborn\u2019s update of the Romeo and Juliet story for the commercial space race. Lawe portrayed Elon Musk (shown here persuading Brunetto\u2019s character to fly to Mars) as well as Jeff Bezos. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) I\u2019m the last person [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5417,5418,1045,1046,21],"class_list":["post-18968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arts","tag-centrifuge-2","tag-elon-musk","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}