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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT APRIL 6, 2023
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HEALING GOES
HIGH-TECH A veteran with PTSD fights to recover his mental health. His struggle is also ours, according to the artists behind the scenes.
Courtesy photos
“Backwards Forwards Back” playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger drew on personal inspiration and network news for her play about using technology to help veterans recover from PTSD.
In “Backwards Forwards Back” at the Urbanite Theatre, a character known as The Soldier, played by L. James, uses technology to confront the PTSD that haunts him.
L. James is The Soldier in “Backwards Forwards Back.”
MARTY FUGATE CONTRIBUTOR
U
ntil recently, plays such as Jacqueline Goldfinger’s “Backwards Forwards Back” and “Babel,” which explore the human impact of emerging technology, were slapped with a “science fiction” label and performed in fringe venues. But over the past decade, speculative tales have hit the mainstream in live theater. For playwrights like Goldfinger, that’s good news. “Backwards” is premiering at Urbanite Theatre and the playwright’s “Babel” was recently featured at FST Stage 3. Not so long ago, rockets, radio and submarines were fodder for science fiction. When technologies predicted by Jules Verne, H.G. Welles and others became reality, stories about those futuristic inventions could be set in the present. Developments like virtual reality, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering have also ceased to be fiction. The dreams of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Michael Crichton and others are no longer confined to the “not-too-distant future.” They’re part of our contemporary lives. While writers still use their imagination to create technology-driven stories, they can also look to the real world. Goldfinger found her inspiration for “Backwards Forwards” on the evening news. An NBC News segment in March 2017 dealt with BraveMind, a
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form of VR exposure therapy developed at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. In conventional therapy, treatment for a dog phobia might start with a plush dog puppet before gradually building up to contact with an actual puppy. But re-creating real-life battlefields is not feasible for treating traumatized veterans. With BraveMind therapy, traumatized veterans are introduced to sensory re-creations of their traumatic incidents using VR goggles and audio input. As the sensory exposure time is gradually increased, their panic response diminishes and may disappear. “VR technology had originally been developed for gaming,” Goldfinger says. “I was excited to see that it had evolved to the point that it was helping people — not only traumatized veterans, but their entire families.” During the NBC News segment, Jimmy Catellanos, a Marine Corps
veteran, spoke of the profound difference VR therapy made in his life. “In 13 weeks, I’d completely changed who I had been for the previous 10 years. Before the treatment, 80 to 90% of my dreams were Iraq-related. Now, I can’t remember the last time I had one. I live in a completely different way now.” Goldfinger has a personal connection to the subject. “I grew up with a grandfather who’d been in World War II,” she says. “He sometimes had strong reactions to different stimuli. As a child, I didn’t know why; it was just something the family all knew about. It wasn’t until very much later that I realized my grandfather’s reactions were PTSD symptoms — and I could see how his sometimes violent outbursts resonated through the family.” “I think that moving VR technology from gaming to therapeutic settings can do so much good for people like my grandfather,” GoldSEE HEALING PAGE 2
‘BACKWARDS, FORWARDS BACK’ When: Through April 23 Where: Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota Tickets: $25-$39 Info: Call 321-1397 or visit UrbaniteTheatre.com.