Script Spotlight: Delay of Signal by J.R. Mimbs

Can science fiction work for the stage? J.R. Mimbs set out to prove it can, even as a character-driven drama, when he wrote this month’s featured script “Delay of Signal.” Although set on Earth, the story focuses on seven characters locked in a biodome for a year to test and simulate potential conditions for future missions to Mars.

Mimbs’s 50-minute script is designed to be a serious production with seven meaty parts and a full set for the interior of the biodome. Although some critical challenges crop up for the intrepid captain and her crew, the real heart of the story focuses on the relationships between them and the impact of those interpersonal connections on potential space travel.

“The origins of this play were in a podcast about an actual six-month mock mission that took place in Hawaii,” Mimbs said. “As much as it was meant to test the science and conditions, it amazed me how much it became about the human conditions that could put a mission at risk.”

Mimbs, who lives in Georgia, has been writing plays since he was 15 years old and serving on an entirely different kind of crew. “I started as a puppeteer and wrote for puppet groups for a while before acting,” he told us. “Acting led to directing, which led to tech theater. That all culminated in a theater degree from Trevecca Nazarene University.”

Mimbs would love to see “Delay of Signal” produced in person, so be sure to invite him to your premier if you decide to stage the production. And be sure to check out Mimbs’s other plays now available on Scriptmore, including “Wanda Re-Writes the World.”

[Playwrights Recommend: Mimbs describes Tracy Wells as a fantastic writer and recommends any of her plays. Be sure to check out the Script Spotlight for her play “To Bee or Not to Bee.”]