The Show Must Go On
I've decided to step down from my director's position due to one thing and another, but the show itself is going to continue with cooperative direction.

History
In 2006 I heard about a play challenge put on by Millions of Us. Entrants were to put on a 5 minute play in the brand-new New Globe Theatre, and out of all the challengers one would win X lindens. I persuaded Enjah to write a five minute play - I'd made an old quirky painting of mine into an Eileen McTeague poster, and Eileen Enjah had written a scene and performed live at the Photography Studio, so she expanded that one-woman snippet into a noir thriller with four characters. I was searching for actors, and originally started with Enj, Vlad Bjornson, and Selador Cellardoor. Vlad was unable to proceed and neither was Selador, but he recommended Lucifer Baphomet. As a ten foot tall red devil was OOC, Vlad was the model for the character, and Lucifer became "Sven" by looking at Vlad. We decided to change two characters into one (the couple whose houseguest is murdered became instead a single woman). One day Ida Keen turned up at the Photography Studio. I think I was fairly quick: "Hi, nice to meet you - I need you to be an actress in a play - ok?" - and was cast as the friend. She came up with the twist at the end of the play.

I built the sets to fit on the New Globe stage, but we rehearsed mostly in Bodega, where the sets hung in the air over some land I was renting from Salazar. This was before hardware lighting, sculpties, and so forth, so it really was the Olden Days. After doing our best to solve some knotty problems we competed to a packed house and won! Well, there were no other entries, and Reuben said that it had been too hard for anyone else and gave us double the prize money but asked us to perform again immediately. So we did, and I think a third time in a row, too, when the sim was opened to everyone, and the lag was through the roof. It was fun and the best part was that it was a completeable task. Before I go further let me state this: Performing in Second Life is really, really hard, and my performers are the bravest of souls.

I decided the only format that would work in SL was a kind of music hall or vaudeville-style with self-contained acts. That way a show could be assembled from whoever could be there at the time/date needed. Luc didn't join us but Vlad and Salazar did! Enjah, Ida, Vlad, and Salazar formed the hardworking and inspired core of the troupe. I went around trying to whip people into a frenzy and held an event every week at Salazar's Cowell Village Amphitheatre. We were considering options for sound when Candide Lemay stepped in and made me an audio box and streamed the mp3s from his server. I applied for, and received, a small grant from the Foundation for Rich Content.

The first act I wanted was a unicycling knitters drill team, and because Ida was the SL knit maven that came to pass. I learned how to build a unicycle that worked with Ida's knitting needles, Enj build a track and made exceptional costumes. Lucy joined the drill team and the show and became another core show member. I really cherish the time I've spent working with the many people who put time and effort into the shows, and who I would never've met at all had it not been for their interest in performing, including Caitlin, Maxie, Salamander, Cat, Monty, and others.

Then a lot of things went on and people came and went, and so on and so forth, and now I'm putting away my tyrant's whip. I'll make posters and things for the show and things will be different but just as good or better, I'm sure. I enjoyed performing a lot, and enjoyed very, very much inventing acts and seeing them come alive.