‘We Interrupt This Program’: Bill Odenkirk’s new play asks whether we’re alone in the universe
Do you believe in the possibility of life elsewhere in our universe? If such life was capable of crossing vast distances of time and space, and were to arrive on Earth, what would that mean for humankind? Or maybe you believe aliens are already among us.
All that is the subject of We Interrupt This Program, a play running this weekend at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois. The event will also be broadcast on our home station, WILL, on Halloween night.
The evening will be in two parts: “Show” and “Tell.”
“Show” will be the play itself — with actors including Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul; and Jill Talley, best known for voicing Karen Plankton on SpongeBob SquarePants.
The second half will be the “Tell” — a discussion including Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who has polarized colleagues with arguments that aliens may already be among us; and Ahmed Best, an afro-futurist who also played Jar-Jar Binks in the Star Wars movies and Jedi Master Kelleran Beq in The Mandalorian.
Last week, we spoke with two of the people involved in the production: Bill Odenkirk is the play’s writer and executive producer. His past work includes The Simpsons, Futurama, and Mr. Show. And Sarah Edwards is moderatingthe “Tell” portion of the show and is also a producer. You can also see her hosting, producing and directing Prairie Fire on WILL-TV.
