Moebius Theatre: Back in the saddle
Feb. 23rd, 2009 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acmespaceshipTime flows like a river and you can never step into the same river twice. That's what my idol Severn Darden said... while portraying a crackpot professor of metaphysics at The Second City. I have many idols. Most of them comedians. And I guess that's the point.
I was still at Northwestern when someone I met in an SCA dance troupe (a long story I may get to telling eventually) heard I was writing for the WAA-MU show and invited me to a Moebius Theatre meeting. This was the summer of 1978. Several things transpired as a result, including my first science fiction convention, 30 years of writing/performing, and eventually my 20-years-and-counting marriage. At various times I have stepped out of this river, only to find myself stepping in again downstream.
So here I am in the river again, newly elected to the Moebius Board of Governors (insert Blagojevich joke here).
A perfect storm hit Moebius a few years back. We had thought that, once we survived everybody having babies, things would be easy. Then we entered the Sandwich Generation and found out what it's like to have kids in school and parents in various stages of dependency. Plus the usual mix of career changes, going back to school, and changes in martial status. Anyway, we looked around one day and realized nobody could commit to a rehearsal schedule. So we turned down some offers and went into a sort of hibernation period.
Aside: A typical Moebius revue requires 6-8 weeks of rehearsal with 2 or 3 rehearsals a week (usually 2 evenings and one weekend afternoon), plus the time to write material, memorize lines, build props and costumes, and so on.
Another aside: We have been trying to recruit younger (less encumbered) performers but we're not active in the Chicago improv community like we once were, and the demographics of fandom seem to have hit a trough of 25-35 year olds. And the ones we find are busy gaming and living in cyberspace. Live theater does not much appeal to them. There's a younger "high school musical" crowd that looks promising (including of course our own Next Generation) but they're going off to college AND BETTER DO THEIR HOMEWORK instead of auditioning for Moebius (this means you, son!)
Personally, I dropped out of Moebius in March 2004 when I found myself responsible for a father with Alzheimer's disease in Maryland and a son with Asperger's Syndrome in middle school. My dad died in 2007 but then there was the estate. And then the estate was settled and I looked up and bammo, my son was looking at colleges. For these 5 years I've pretty much abandoned all creative efforts except the profoundly creative effort of holding things together.
But the river is stirring. There's a show in development, others in the works. I am considering the possibility that I may be too old for sketch comedy but we shall see about that.
BTW, if you're reading this and thinking "hey, I'm interested in live theater," please visit moebiustheatre.net
I was still at Northwestern when someone I met in an SCA dance troupe (a long story I may get to telling eventually) heard I was writing for the WAA-MU show and invited me to a Moebius Theatre meeting. This was the summer of 1978. Several things transpired as a result, including my first science fiction convention, 30 years of writing/performing, and eventually my 20-years-and-counting marriage. At various times I have stepped out of this river, only to find myself stepping in again downstream.
So here I am in the river again, newly elected to the Moebius Board of Governors (insert Blagojevich joke here).
A perfect storm hit Moebius a few years back. We had thought that, once we survived everybody having babies, things would be easy. Then we entered the Sandwich Generation and found out what it's like to have kids in school and parents in various stages of dependency. Plus the usual mix of career changes, going back to school, and changes in martial status. Anyway, we looked around one day and realized nobody could commit to a rehearsal schedule. So we turned down some offers and went into a sort of hibernation period.
Aside: A typical Moebius revue requires 6-8 weeks of rehearsal with 2 or 3 rehearsals a week (usually 2 evenings and one weekend afternoon), plus the time to write material, memorize lines, build props and costumes, and so on.
Another aside: We have been trying to recruit younger (less encumbered) performers but we're not active in the Chicago improv community like we once were, and the demographics of fandom seem to have hit a trough of 25-35 year olds. And the ones we find are busy gaming and living in cyberspace. Live theater does not much appeal to them. There's a younger "high school musical" crowd that looks promising (including of course our own Next Generation) but they're going off to college AND BETTER DO THEIR HOMEWORK instead of auditioning for Moebius (this means you, son!)
Personally, I dropped out of Moebius in March 2004 when I found myself responsible for a father with Alzheimer's disease in Maryland and a son with Asperger's Syndrome in middle school. My dad died in 2007 but then there was the estate. And then the estate was settled and I looked up and bammo, my son was looking at colleges. For these 5 years I've pretty much abandoned all creative efforts except the profoundly creative effort of holding things together.
But the river is stirring. There's a show in development, others in the works. I am considering the possibility that I may be too old for sketch comedy but we shall see about that.
BTW, if you're reading this and thinking "hey, I'm interested in live theater," please visit moebiustheatre.net
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 02:40 am (UTC)Even when the kids are off on their own, time can be difficult. I'm working long hours, Paul isn't working at all as of today, and I'm going to start studying for another run at the bar any second now. The one thing I was really trying to keep for myself was riding, but it's a little hard to commit to a lesson schedule when you don't know how work is going to play out on any given day. Friday I was there from 8am to 7:45 pm and never got around to lunch.
Good luck with things. Kids with disabilities are both a challenge and an incredible blessing. It's got to be a little difficult being on the verge of letting him fly (pushing him out of the nest.)
Life is good.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 06:01 pm (UTC)