“The Last Starfighter” was a 1984 sci-fi movie about a young man who’s recruited by aliens, on the basis of his video game-playing skills, to fight an interstellar war.

Fantastical, yes—but the basic premise was perhaps not quite as “out there” as you might have thought. For a few years ago, Joe York—writer and director of the play “Soccer Moms and Reapers,” now having its world premiere, courtesy of P.T.D. Productions—was intrigued by a New York Times article about video gamers who’d been sought out by the military to try and fly drones.

“They proved to be pretty good at it,” said York.

The story ultimately planted the seed for York’s “Soccer Moms,” which focuses on two gamers, DC and Habib, who operate drones in the Middle East for the Air Force (remotely from Las Vegas) during the day, only to return to their suburban lives each night. When one of their drones kills civilians by mistake, they must justify their role in the war to their families and themselves.

“When I researched it, I thought it was interesting that the drone operators went through some of the same stuff that the pilots did, in terms of their reactions and stress,” said York.

As a community theater company, P.T.D. has never before staged a world premiere play, so York confessed that “there was some hesitancy when I first presented it. Some thought I should do a staged reading first, which I did, and I’m glad I did that. It wound up making the play better.”

The staged reading happened about a year ago, and although York spotted some things in the script that needed tweaking, the response was positive enough to earn the script a place in P.T.D.’s season lineup shortly thereafter.

Did York worry about being too close to the material to direct the show?

“I wanted to be involved with the development of the play, and with a true production of it,” said York. “It’s really been interesting, because it’s been pretty much like directing any other show, in terms of how I work. The only thing is, I can change some of the words, and that helps a lot. And the process helps me as a playwright. I’ve seen the places where people are confused about what’s going on, and where something wasn’t clear in the text. I wouldn’t have found that out if I had not been involved.”

“Soccer Moms,” which is for mature audiences, shows the two gamers both at work and at home; and though this is the fifth script York has written, it’s the first to receive a full production.

This may have made York occasionally too anxious to make changes during the rehearsal period. “I’ll say, ‘Maybe he should say this,’ or ‘Maybe they should do this,’ and several times, the actors or the assistant director will come up to me later and say, ‘I think playwright had a good reason for that line,’” said York. “And then I remember why I wrote it that way.”

But minutiae aside, York is excited about the work being done by his cast and his design team. “It’s been a great experience,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

Here’s a promotional video for the show:

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.