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Eliya Smith says plot is what happens when you’re busy doing nothing

JL;DR SUMMARY Eliya Smith's play "Dad Don't Read This" explores the ennui and existential angst of adolescence through the lens of four high school friends and their interactions with the computer game, The Sims. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

New YorkTheaterOhioAdolescencePlaywritingControlEliya SmithDad Don't Read ThisThe SimsBoredom

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"The streets of the West Village, where we met for coffee, were teeming with orange and blue; she was wearing a baseball cap with some sort of bird, a heron or maybe a penguin, swallowing a fish."
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
"Smith started writing the show about a decade ago, during Thanksgiving break from Harvard."
Columbus, Ohio, United States
"Smiths from Columbus"
Austin, Texas, United States
"Eliya left the Forward in 2021 to go to grad school at UT Austin."
Virginia, United States
"(Last seasons Grief Camp took place in Virginia, but also followed young people; another play, about Holocaust memory, was called Deadclass, Ohio and, aptly, played at the New Ohio Theatre in Manhattan.)"

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Cairo Item ID 85914
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-06-23 05:30:45 UTC
Curated 2026-06-23 08:30:53 UTC