Nathan Dixon – “Snowstorm Pandemiconium: A Play[gue]”

 

Nathan Dixon is pursuing a PhD in English literature and creative writing at the University of Georgia. His creative work has appeared in many national publications including Tin House and The Georgia Review. His critical work has appeared in Transmotion and Renaissance Papers. He co-curates the Yumfactory reading series in Athens, GA alongside Paul Cunningham.

His Shelter Project play focuses on the rhetoric of right-wing commentators who have downplayed the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak and thus “snowed over” a significant portion of the nation’s populace. This has led to the United States’s emergence as the global capital of the Coronavirus. In his play, Dixon juxtaposes right-wing bombast (shouted falsehoods) alongside the brief obituaries of 100 people who have died from the virus. Personal recollections of the dead quickly give way to sheer numbers until the stage and the audience both are finally overwhelmed (infected) with the dead.