This document summarizes news stories and events from both the fictional world of Marisol described in the play and from our real world. Some stories, like prisoners in Brooklyn banging walls to protest lack of heat, fake moons being launched in space, and wildfires destroying over 95,000 acres in California, are identified as taking place in our world. Other situations, like dropping insecticides on the Bronx, arresting people for credit card debt and torture, and lacing homeless blankets with chemicals, are identified as occurring in the fictional world of Marisol. The document aims to highlight similarities between real world issues and those exaggerated in the play's dystopian setting.

1. MARISOL’S WORLD OR
OUR WORLD?
We may be more similar than we think we are…

2. PRISONERS PROTEST HAVING NO
HEAT BY BANGING ON WALLS

3. ANSWER: OUR WORLD
Brooklyn native Shahana Hanif tweeted this video on February 1, 2019 with the
caption "I am outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center where prisoners are
without heat. The banging noise is them protesting for all of us to hear. They are
without heat for days. This is in BROOKLYN."
CLICKTOPLAY

4. Scientists are drafting plans to develop a new
strain of cow that lives by eating Astroturf in
response to reports that cows are giving salty
milk due to contaminated grass

5. ANSWER: MARISOL’S WORLD

6. Company proposes to create a fake moon
to hang in the sky to save money that
would be used for street lamps

7. ANSWER: OUR WORLD
BBC reported in October of 2018
that "A Chinese company has
announced ambitious plans to put
a "fake moon" into space to
brighten the night sky."
In Marisol, the moon has
disappeared and has not been
seen in 9 months.
Source: "Fake Moon: Could China
Really Light Up the Night Sky?"
(https://www.bbc.com/news/world
-asia-china-45910479)

8. Homelessness is against the law

9. ANSWER: OUR WORLD
Yes, homelessness is against the law
in Marisol. But the criminalization of the
homeless is also on the rise in the United
States. A 2016 report surveying 187 US cities
published by the National Law Center on
Homelessness and Poverty states that
"since 2006, citywide bans on loitering,
loafing, and vagrancy increased by 88%,
on sitting and lying down in certain public
places increased by 52%, on panhandling
grew by 43%, on camping increased by
69%, and on sleeping in public increased
by 31%."
Source: Criminalization of Homelessness
Increases in U.S. Cities
(https://nlihc.org/article/criminalization-
homelessness-increases-us-cities)

10. Elected officials are planning to drop
human insecticides on overpopulated
areas of the Bronx

11. ANSWER: MARISOL’S WORLD

12. Fire destroys over 95,000 acres of land
in 4 days

13. ANSWER: OUR WORLD
In the play, a wildfire spreads from
Ohio to New York City in a matter
of hours. Similarly, in 2018,
California's "Camp Fire" became the
deadliest fire in the state's history.
Between November 9th and
November 13th, the fire destroyed
over 95,000 acres of land, totaling to
125,000 acres at that point
Source: Camp Fire Incident Update
November 13
(http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/pub/cdf/im
ages/incidentfile2277_4226.pdf)

14. Police are arresting those who go over
their credit card limit and take them to a
windowless building to be tortured

15. ANSWER: MARISOL’S WORLD

16. Man has unknown chemicals poured
on him and rope tied around his neck

17. ANSWER: OUR WORLD
On January 29, 2019, Jussie Smollett,
a queer man of color and star of
the Fox television show "Empire,"
was attacked and beaten by two
men screaming racial and
homophobic slurs. The story was
published by the New York Times.
Source: Jussie Smollett, Star of
'Empire,' Attacked in What Police
Call a Possible Hate Crime
(https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/2
9/arts/television/empire-jussie-
smollett-attacked.html)

18. Blankets given to the homeless are being
laced with DDT (a chemical used as an
insecticide)

19. ANSWER: MARISOL’S WORLD

20. A graveyard for unborn babies was found
under a sidewalk in Brooklyn, New York

21. ANSWER: MARISOL’S WORLD