![\"Hannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-stage-hannah-meade.jpg\")
Hannah Meade is the director of Cygnet Theatre\u2019s production of the play \u201cJOB.\u201d (Hannah Meade)<\/p>\nThere\u2019s are reasons the letters in playwright Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s 2024 psychological thriller \u201cJOB\u201d are all upper case.<\/p>\n
One reason is that it represents today\u2019s internet culture, where texts, social media posts and viral videos have the power to dramatically amplify viewers emotions, prejudices and rage.<\/p>\n
Set in San Francisco in January 2020, \u201cJOB\u201d the story of Loyd, a crisis therapist in his 60s, and Jane, his 20something client, a career-driven woman who was a content moderator for a large tech company.<\/p>\n
After Jane suffers a work-related meltdown and is put on leave, she must convince Loyd that she\u2019s fit and ready to return to work. But the gap in their ages, experiences and worldviews makes it hard for them to communicate and their conversation evolves into a psychological duel.<\/p>\n
Hannah Meade is the director of Cygnet Theatre\u2019s production of the play \u201cJOB.\u201d (Hannah Meade)<\/p>\n
The intense 80-minute play is making its San Diego premiere at Cygnet Theatre on Saturday. Cygnet co-founders Sean Murray and Bill Schmidt said this play blew their minds when they saw it on Broadway two years ago, and they couldn\u2019t wait to bring it to local audiences.<\/p>\n
The play starts out as an intense therapy session, Murray said, but then it suddenly transforms into something else that the audience won\u2019t see coming.<\/p>\n
The play is directed by Hannah Meade, a busy freelance director who moved to San Diego from her native Houston in 2019 and has worked with several local theater companies in the areas of directing, producing, new play development and administration, including La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Moxie Theatre, Backyard Renaissance Theatre and Chalk Circle Collective.<\/p>\n
This project marks her Cygnet directing debut.<\/p>\n
Meade won the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle\u2019s 2024 Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play for her work on Backyard\u2019s \u201cConstellations.\u201d Like \u201cJOB,\u201d \u201cConstellations\u201d is a two-character play about a man and woman with a twisty plotline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big tie to those two plays is a cerebral experience that\u2019s tied to visceral reaction,\u201d Meade said in a recent phone interview. \u201cThose two plays both have that really booted in their DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meade said the casting process for \u201cJOB\u201d was exciting. Loyd is being played by actor Jacob Bruce, who co-starred in Backyard Renaissance\u2019s 2023 production of \u201cAugust: Osage County,\u201d which she assistant directed. Jane is being played by Caroline Gottleib, who is new to the San Diego theater scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chemistry we saw in the audition was really just artistic sparks flying,\u201d Meade said of the cast, adding that \u201cJOB\u201d rehearsals have been equally satisfying. \u201cWith \u2018JOB,\u2019 it\u2019s like climbing Mount Everest, so it\u2019s nice to have collaborators you can hold hands with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Meade said she rarely allows herself to identify with the characters in the plays she directs, but the character of Jane really spoke to her, because they\u2019re close to the same age and they\u2019ve both grown up in an internet-dominated world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I read this play I was trying to hold on to directorial point of view and got lost in the story of this late-20s woman\u2019s experience of learning how to stand up for the world around her and wanting to do the right thing and carrying the weight of that,\u201d Meade said. \u201cIt\u2019s a gift to be able to direct this play at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loyd, on the other hand is a character who Meade said takes time for the audience to figure out. \u201cHe\u2019s a twist-and-turns character.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Loyd and Jane have grown up in the Silicon Valley environment where computer techology and the internet have transformed life as we know it. But because they\u2019re from different generations, their perspectives are not alike.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe calls herself a citizen of the internet, but that\u2019s where he lives, and he sees the world in a different way. That debate is really live and fresh and they both have acurate viewpoints,\u201d Meade said.<\/p>\n
Meade will be directing \u201cJOB\u201d in the round in Cygnet\u2019s Dottie Studio Theater. She said that just because the play\u2019s setting is a therapy session, audience members shouldn\u2019t expect the play to be a static story of two people sitting in chairs facing each other. She\u2019s excited to be bringing movement and surprises to the storytelling.<\/p>\n
Because \u201cJOB\u201d goes to unexpected places, Meade said she hopes audiences will come in without knowing too much and also prepared for a gripping and thrilling experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis play is a car-ride-home conversation play,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re the kind of person who\u2019s excited to have a good chat with your theater-going partner on the way home, this play is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018JOB\u2019<\/p>\n
When: Previews, Wednesday through Friday. Opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 1. 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (plus 2 p.m. Oct. 14)<\/p>\n
Where: Dottie Studio Theater at Cygnet Theatre\u2019s The Joan, 2880 Roosevelt St., San Diego<\/p>\n
Tickets: $59 and up<\/p>\n