“Every man liveth so after his own pleasure.”

Everyman, as it is currently devised and written, is a loose adaptation of the story of the 16th century cycle play, “The Summoning of Everyman”. The biggest plot structure that our adapted “Everyman” follows most specifically from the original work is the idea of taking a journey alone. When I first thought of this very important theme in the original Everyman, the more I began to relate it to the feeling that I (and many others) have experienced within the last few years. This very much includes the effects of COVID, but also just the general effects of growing up, and being in the weird early 20’s period of your life (maybe you’re just about to graduate college or you just have graduated) and you’re just kind of feeling lost or “stuck”- only then adding on an additional layer of actually physically being stuck in a quarantine during a global pandemic.

I see Everyman representing our modern society (in this modern adaptation) just as the original title “Everyman” was to represent- every man (or more appropriately- “representing every one”). In this way, I have tried to frame the action around some of the most fully encapsulating issues that usually may accompany many in this stage of life- things that target audiences will relate to the most. This is mostly portrayed through the inclusion of very pandemic- specific references or bits onstage that we- as a collective population living through this collectively traumatic event- might find some kind of cathartic comfort in.