New Jersey Stage 2017: Issue 6 | Page 26

Photo of Dominique Morisseau. her strength of characters and stories that contain important messages. As Wilson turned Pittsburgh into something of an everyday town in America, Morisseau has done the same for Detroit. Her trilogy not only points out changes in the Motor City, but changes in the country has a whole. Automation is one NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 6 such example. While Detroit has been on the frontline of the au- tomation revolution, it is spread- ing throughout other industries and across the country. “I think that’s one of the biggest challenges facing blue-collar workers in America right now,” continued Wooten. “Technol- ogy has replaced so many of those jobs that the future is more about retraining the workers and reacclimating them to the jobs of tomorrow. That’s what most in- trigued me about Skeleton Crew. I think, in some ways, the biggest issue facing the modern Ameri- can worker is that technology is only going to continue to get better and better; and, as it gets better and better, the need for human workers to do what tech- nology and robots can do for a lot cheaper is going to continue to be a challenge and an issue.” Another reason Skeleton Crew appealed to Wooten was the op- INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 26