As you can see above, there is another Spider show on the horizon to join The Spidey Project and Spidermann and this week's guest blog comes to us from one of the writers of the show above. So take it away Randy!
When I was but a wee fat child, my mother bought me the most awesome present in the known universe: a crappy consumer video camera. It was one of those fancy models that recorded footage on tiny video tapes that had to be put into larger VHS tape-adaptor-contraptions. Very, very high tech for 1995.
Shortly after receiving this brilliant gift, young Randy Blair transformed into mini Steven Spielberg, turning his mother's dining room into a studio and casting the neighborhood children as his tiny Randy Warhol Factory superstars. His oeuvre was strictly comedy, but the genres were varied, ranging anywhere from adaptations of R. L. Stine's Goosebumps to an outerspace epic filmed entirely with Troll Dolls (TM). And while that all seems frighteningly silly, the effects were pretty good. I remember filming one particularly incredible scene in my troll space opera where the ship exploded into the darkness of the universe, using only a music stand, a leather jacket, a plastic space shuttle, homemade confetti, and ghetto-awesome stop animation. Pretty swank.
I imagine that most creative kids had similar experiences of flexing their imaginations, because I haven't known of a 12 year old yet to have a $65 million dollar budget. The muscles we flexed back on the playground are the same ones that prove useful to us in a professional creative setting, and honoring those impluses above all else has become my modus operandi in creating theatre.
Thus came Spidermusical.
How can you present a superhero story on a limited budget? How is it possible to make characters fly, transform into mutants, and save the day in epic fight sequences? To that I say - uhh, how is it NOT? If I could do it as a kid, I could surely remember how to as an adult!
Now that isn't to say that the show is frivolous, silly, and without style. Just like little Randy played at Spielberg with a crappy camera and toys, we're aiming for the highest quality production possible with our limited resources. That mission begins with locating other cool kids who play in the same way, and I'm happy to say that we have some of the best in town. Adam Wachter creates Broadway style orchestrations with a 4 piece band. Connor Gallagher is the Bob Fosse of cult theatre. Tim Drucker and Matt Berger are enfants terrible, and Brian Fenty and Rachel Routh are super cool enough to give us the cash to do it all.
To those with questions, we are not a musical about Spider-Man. We are a musical about a teenage nerd with an unrequited crush on the girl next door who gets bitten by a radioactive spider in a genetics laboratory. Completely original. During the course of the play, we subvert the traditions of comic book story structure, turning stereotypes on their heads while celebrating their inherent craziness.
I won't say any more, but rather encourage you to come and watch our low rent magnum opus. For more info and to buy some very affordable tickets, check out www.spidermusical.com (a very fancy website I made for $0.)
