Three summer interns get trapped inside a locked-down congressional building after a bomb threat in This Is Government, the dark comedy opening Moxie Theatre's 22nd season on October 2. The play runs through October 25 at the company's home on El Cajon Boulevard, mixing politics, workplace comedy and a distinctly Generation Z sense of dread about inheriting a broken system.
Written by Nina Kissinger, the play is described as a dark comedy about three summer interns trapped during a congressional-building lockdown, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The story depicts a bomb threat that locks down congressional buildings in Washington, D.C., and leans on a Parks & Recreation-style absurdist humor to carry its four characters through the crisis. Performances are set for 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Suite N, with previews running Sunday through Thursday before opening night. Tickets start at $20.
A Real Lockdown Behind The Fictional One
The premise did not come from nowhere. The paper's report notes the play was inspired by an actual Capitol Hill incident in which a North Carolina man parked his truck outside the Capitol Hill library, said he had a bomb, and demanded to speak with President Biden. The lockdown order that followed lasted five hours, and while no bomb was found and nobody was hurt, the standoff left an impression on Kissinger that eventually became the seed of her script.
The real standoff also led to a federal criminal case: Floyd Ray Roseberry was convicted and sentenced to five years of probation after spending a year in jail. The sentence came after prosecutors argued for prison time, making the episode’s aftermath more than a brief security disruption. The case is a reminder that a threat can carry serious legal consequences even when it ends without an explosion, as detailed in the account of Roseberry’s sentencing.
Kissinger has a personal connection to the setting she is skewering. She had considered a career in politics before interning for a U.S. congressmember, then decided she would rather write about politics, per the same account, and completed the first draft of This Is Government in 2022. The play mixes politics, social issues and Gen Z workplace experiences, and it premiered off Broadway in 2025 before making its way to San Diego.
The production also fits Moxie’s longer-standing focus on whose stories reach the stage. The company says its mission is to create more diverse and honest images of women through theatre, including by producing work by female-identified playwrights and creating opportunities for women+ artists. Moxie’s own history notes that when it was founded, women wrote 16% of plays in American Theatre—context for a company that places a young woman playwright’s political comedy at the center of its season. Moxie outlines its mission and history.
Kissinger On Frustration And Laughter
Kissinger said Gen Z adults are frustrated about having to repair problems left by preceding generations, a frustration that runs through the script's absurdist take on institutional dysfunction. Still, she has said she wants audiences to laugh and see something with resonance in the world, according to the report, aiming for comedy that lands even as it needles real anxieties about government paralysis.
Kissinger has been racking up recognition beyond this production. She received the Stanley Drama Award from Wagner College Theatre in January and was named the college's inaugural playwright in residence for the 2026-27 academic year, a post that includes plans to teach classes there in spring 2027. She is also currently writing On Tuesdays We Fight, a play about a college debate club arguing over whether to bring a controversial speaker to campus.
Kissinger’s Stanley Drama Award is part of a national playwriting competition administered by Wagner College Theatre. Established in 1957, the prize has a long history of recognizing scripts before professional production; Wagner lists Rent and Ceremonies in Dark Old Men among past winners. That lineage gives the award a broader place in the development pipeline for new plays, beyond its role as a mark of recognition for Kissinger. Wagner’s award history traces the competition’s roots and past winners.
Moxie's Executive Artistic Director Weighs In
The production is directed by Desireé Clarke Miller, Moxie Theatre's executive artistic director, who selected This Is Government for the company's season-opening slot. Miller has said the play asks people to come together to figure out ways to change the world, framing the intern's-eye view of Washington dysfunction as an invitation rather than just a punchline. Kissinger is expected to attend all three performances September 26–27.
The bomb-threat premise situates the show within a broader pattern of playwrights mining current political anxiety for dark comedy; a 2024 New Yorker piece on two playwrights finding dark humor in Russian political material described the genre's version of super-timeliness. Moxie's production, however, keeps its focus tightly on the Capitol Hill scare and the Gen Z interns caught inside it, rather than any wider theatrical trend.
