Acute Exposure Program

Acute Exposure

By August Hakvaag
Directed by J. Briggs Cormier

The performance runs 75 minutes without an intermission.

No late seating or reentry.

Setting

April, present day.

US Highway 285, Going southeast of Loving, NM on Onsurez Road

The backyard between Dell and Mara's houses. It faces southwest.

A school bus stop, by the road in front of Dell and Mara's houses. It faces northeast towards US Highway 285.

Dell's bedroom.

Cast

Dell
Klaire Weinroth

Mara
Kalee Sribanditmongkol

This is the premiere of Acute Exposure . It is the 2025-26 winner in the EMOS Ecodrama Playwright's Festival.

The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, is strictly prohibited. Please silence your cell phones and pagers prior to the beginning of the performance. In consideration of those seated around you, please refrain from texting during the performance.

Nyle Atiq (voiceover), sophomore
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Centerville, OH
Major(s): biology
Department Productions: 1st department production

Joe Blair (asst. stage manager), senior
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Toledo, OH
Major(s): psychology; theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Grace Bryant (dramaturg), graduate student
Hometown: North Manchester, IN
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Matt Henry (asst. production electrician), senior
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Major(s): air transportation
Minor(s): theatre
Department Productions: Silent Sky; The Moors; After the Blast

Evan Lane (lighting designer), graduate student
Hometown: Sound Beach, NY
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: After the Blast

Jack MacGregor (scenic and properties designer), graduate student
Hometown: Denison, IA
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Lauren Meadows (Mrs. Gastrock voice over), senior
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Akron, OH
Major(s): choral music education; theatre
Department Productions: After the Blast

Juanita Mejia Restrepo (dramaturg), graduate student
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Medellin, Colombia
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Claire Pennington (production stage manager), senior
Hometown: Batavia, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: The Squirrels

Bob Pike (sound designer), graduate student
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Orlando, FL
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: The Squirrels

Jeremy D Quick (costume designer), graduate student
Hometown: Westerville, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Kalee Sribanditmongkol (Mara), junior
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Gahanna, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre
Department Productions: Silent Sky; Orlando; The Squirrels

Klaire Weinroth (Dell), junior
Pronouns: she/her
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Major(s): strategic communication; theatre
Department productions: The Moors

Gabe Willenberg (production electrician), graduate student
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Hilliard, OH
Major(s): mechanical engineering
Department Productions: After the Blast

Rufus ZaeJoDaeus (media designer), graduate student
Hometown: Logan, UT
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: After the Blast

Acute Exposure prompts self-reflection on the causes that move individuals and the world. As the play progresses, the two high schoolers Dell and Mara draw on La Cueva de las Manos, the Rosetta Stone, Beowulf, and Astronomy to work through their feelings of conviction, community, and identity. Their primary concern is with communicating to future generations a risk that lies 2,150 feet underground. Although fictional, the play addresses a real issue affecting the Earth that has been long ignored: the nuclear waste that has been collected and stored in New Mexico for more than 25 years will actually remain in the world forever.

The setting of Acute Exposure in the outskirts of Carlsbad, NM, the largest desert in North America, places the characters near the Waste Isolated Pilot Plant, situating Dell and Mara in a location where they can expand their vision. As they express concerns about how future generations will be affected by and be informed of this waste, the characters reference and are inspired by resilient examples of human expression. At school, Dell and Mara learn about La Cueva de las Manos, an Argentinian cave of painted handprints and other illustrations created between 13,000 and 9,500 years ago. Similarly, the pair reference other significant texts, such as the manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, speculated to have been written between 900 and 1100 CE and the Rosetta Stone, carved in 196 BCE. These objects, alongside persistent myths that surround the constellations, illustrate how human language and storytelling transcend centuries. Overall, the play’s intertextual references exemplify how humans have the power to impact the world for centuries to come, for good or for ill.

As The Ohio State University joins in the 7th installation of the Earth Matters Onstage Festival, it is easy to see how each chosen play throughout the years highlights humans’ positive and not-so-positive impacts on the world. Larry Loebell’s play Girl Science, performed at the 2004 EMOS Festival, features a scientist devoting her life to researching a river in Pennsylvania that her father’s coal mining company polluted. Chantal Bilodeau investigates in her 2012 EMOS play Sila the ripple effect of humans on the Arctic Circle and its animal inhabitants. August Hakvaag’s Acute Exposure adds to the catalog their play about humans’ lasting impact on the earth through dangerous nuclear waste and art.

We invite you, the audience, after watching the play, to discover the cause that moves you and find the mark you want to leave in the world.