It's time to put on makeup! It's time to light the lights!

So Who is Aram Chaos? opened, and despite my personal doubts that folks would take the ride with us, they most certainly did.

It was very well received. A crowd of friends and fellow Sparkers asked very good questions that didn't involve, "What the hell was that?".
We now have the rest of this week to take some of their thoughts into account, polish, and present again on Saturday.

We're going to focus on toning down the shrillness of Ileana's character and on cleaning up an ending that some felt was a little muddy.
We may also reshoot some of the video portions of the show such that folks feel that we've made a stronger choice.

We have a sprinkling of video monologues throughout the show shot in the wider world, in contrast to the stark isolation of the rest of the show. Very deliberately a place outside the world of the play. It can either be read as the characters in a prior life, or simply as the actors delivering commentaries (I think they work either way) but the audience seemed to want stronger choices out of the video.

Aside from the surprise that I felt at the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the show the two most interesting things that I'm taking away from this weekend are:

1. I'm a little amazed that there are no clunkers. There aren't any horrifically bad shows among the 5 theatre teams. I honestly never would have expected that no one would fail. No one did. Go us. Gamers don't let us down!
   
   
2. It is very surprising to me that even in an environment when our only connection was theatre, where we were all involved doing the same exact thing it was really odd to see folks from the "office" doing their thing. Because we had never sat in on other teams' rehearsals nor read their scripts there was an odd disconnect. So seeing the guys from the office next door doing a show was a little odd. No, I have no idea why.

Another busy week ahead though. We have a writer in Denver, a show to polish and a game presentation to raid. 3 more rehearsals, a show, and an awards ceremony and this whole thing is over. If time ever passes more quickly just shoot me.

And they're off!

The festival is officially underway as Frankenstein's Monster gamely kicked us off last night with "Google Me", a comedy about a married couples' need(?) for a jump start to they're sex life. An additional ten points go to Frank's (as we've been calling them) for having overcome a very late cast change (they lost their female lead ten days ago) and putting on a enjoyable night of theatre.

And if it's indicative of the shows that are going up, we're going to stick out like a gangrenous thumb.

I fully expected the festival to be half comedies and half bitter political commentary. Even without knowing what Aristophanes, Wisconsins show is about and not having read Sidewalk Chalks I can tell you that we're not going to get half. "Handgrenade Holly" does have some light political underpining but that's not really what the show is about.

We on the other hand do muck about in politics, with a half cup of media criticism, and a pint or two of religious satire. And some songs. And some mostly unrelated video commentaries. So. Yeah.

I was impressed by the level of audience comments after the show, and I am both terrified and excited to see what people have to say about this particular stew.

Game on.