Networked Reality

On January 13th 2018, 1.4m people across Hawai’i received an SMS from the state’s Emergency Management Agency: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. In the minutes that followed, they were forced to confront existential questions that had been unthinkable just moments before: where could they go for shelter? What would remain of their communities if they survived a nuclear blast? How could they explain to their children why we live in a world where such unimaginable destruction was possible?

Nightmare Time was a series of musical comedy livestreams by LA-based theatre company Starkid Productions. Pre-COVID, they only staged traditional live theatre, but during the pandemic they began this series of three "episodes" that aired in October of 2020. These streams were mostly live, with intermittent songs that were pre-recorded and edited in the style of music videos.