@article{ART003330876},
author={Kang, Hyeong-min},
title={Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2026},
volume={39},
number={1},
pages={7-32}
TY - JOUR
AU - Kang, Hyeong-min
TI - Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2026
VL - 39
IS - 1
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 7
EP - 32
SN - 1226-3397
AB - This article examines Annie Baker’s The Flick as a dramatic exploration of the transformation of labor in the cultural industry during the transition from analog film to digital projection. Set in a small movie theater in Massachusetts in 2012, the play follows three low-wage employees whose daily routines consist of cleaning the auditorium and managing film screenings while confronting the imminent replacement of 35mm projection with digital technology. Although the technological change itself remains largely invisible to the audience, the play reveals its profound consequences for the workers who operate behind the screen.
Drawing on discussions of deskilling and precarious labor, this article argues that the shift to digital projection undermines the technical knowledge and professional identity once associated with the projectionist. In the world of The Flick, the film projector functions not merely as a machine but as the material foundation of skill, hierarchy, and limited autonomy within the workplace. As digital technology reduces projection to a simplified operation, the workers’ specialized knowledge becomes obsolete and their positions increasingly insecure.
At the same time, the play dramatizes how economic insecurity weakens the possibility of solidarity among workers. The employees’ informal practice of sharing “dinner money,” obtained through minor ticket fraud, initially appears as a form of mutual support within an exploitative workplace. Yet this fragile arrangement ultimately fails to develop into genuine collective resistance. Instead, mistrust and competition gradually replace cooperation.
By focusing on the disappearance of film and the changing conditions of work behind the screen, The Flick suggests that the most significant impact of digital transition lies not in the visual experience of cinema but in the reorganization of labor and the erosion of fragile social bonds among workers.
KW - Digital Transition;Deskilling;Cultural Labor;Precariat/Industrial Reserve Army;Annie Baker’s The Flick
DO -
UR -
ER -
Kang, Hyeong-min. (2026). Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick. Journal of Modern English Drama, 39(1), 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. 2026, "Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.39, no.1 pp.7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min "Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick" Journal of Modern English Drama 39.1 pp.7-32 (2026) : 7.
Kang, Hyeong-min. Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick. 2026; 39(1), 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. "Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick" Journal of Modern English Drama 39, no.1 (2026) : 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick. Journal of Modern English Drama, 39(1), 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2026; 39(1) 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick. 2026; 39(1), 7-32.
Kang, Hyeong-min. "Digital Transition and the Crisis of Labor in Annie Baker’s The Flick" Journal of Modern English Drama 39, no.1 (2026) : 7-32.
