Open Wardrobes

I had a rather unique experience this last Saturday, as I participated in my first ever large-scale puzzle quest. The event was under the umbrella of Minnesota Zero who in the past year or so have now run a total of five such events. This event was largely constructed by my friend Dave Pisa (of Walking Shadow Theatre) who has been creating puzzles for about as long as I've known him, including Walking Shadow's 2006 Fringe puzzle show 1926 Pleasant (which if you missed you can find a complete walkthrough on their website). As I said, this my my first experience participating in such an event, and together with my wife Kelly and friends Nathan and Windy we made up Team Three Lit Geeks and a Physicist (guess which of us was the physicist...).

The event took place in downtown Minneapolis in a variety of locations, but all close enough to walk to. The general format was that each location had a puzzle (often comprising of several steps) which when solved would yield the name of the next location. For example, the first puzzle came with a library card and the clue read "Third Floor Conference Room" which led us to the big downtown library on Hennepin. These hunts usually have some sort of theme, and this one's was the Matrix, and so at the library the next puzzle started with a series of numbers running Matrix-like down a computer screen. These turned out to be Library of Congress numbers and look up the titles and authors of those led us the next step at the library, and so on. The puzzles were fairly challenging, although hints were available, and once you hit upon the solution it was fairly obvious that that was the solution. (Although the location "House of Balls" gave us some difficulty as we didn't know it was an actual place and instead interpreted it metaphorically, trying first the new Twins stadium, then the Target Center...) The puzzles all differed, but there are certain types that tend to recur in different puzzle hunts. For example, you can be fairly certain there will be multiple puzzles involving various codes, such as Morse code, binary, a standard letter substitution (i.e. A=1, B=2, etc), and so on. Also, many puzzles involve some sort of unscrambling (the final solution may involve rearranging a random set of letters, for example) or otherwise finding the clue that tells you what order something should be in (often as simple as alphabetizing).

While challenging and sometimes frustrating (such as wandering around downtown trying to figure out what "House of Balls" means), there is something satisfying about getting that jolt of inspiration when you realize what to do next. One step in the library puzzle led us to a book with the title of "The Password is Courage." We weren't quite sure what to do first, until it hit me that the library card we had been given probably came with an online library account. You can probably guess the password associated with that account. So while we were by no means in the lead, we didn't come in last either, and it was quite an exciting and enjoyable experience. I'm glad that Dave was in charge of this one, as I wouldn't have known about it otherwise, but now that I do know about it I look forward to the next one (as they've done 5 now in less than a year and a half, hopefully it won't be too long). I can imagine that after you've done a couple you have a better sense of how people set them up and how to be thinking about the puzzles. So if this sort of thing interests you then check out Minnesota Zero's website where you can look through some of the past hunts and keep an eye out for future ones.

As part of my website for Schrödinger's Cat Must Die! I have started a new blog called Ask Dr. Volt! in which Dr. Volt (one of the characters in the show) will answer YOUR science questions. Yes, really. I know, I know, it's about time a blog like this existed, because who hasn't wanted to ask questions of a mad scientist? So go ahead, ask away!

On Saturday I had my first meeting with Kevin Whitby about my Fringe show. Kevin is a longtime friend, plus fellow actor/playwright, and so I am very excited at what he will bring to this piece. He in turn is very excited about this show, and it is certainly very encouraging to have someone else feel this show has such potential! We talked about both of our expectations for the rehearsal process, and specifically what I am looking for in terms of direction. What is most important to me in this regard is the need for another pair of eyes. I know enough about myself as both an actor and a playwright that I often need to hear someone else's thoughts in order to see things in a new light and bring either a piece or my performance to the next level. I feel that the script is nearly there in terms of being ready to start rehearsals; the rest will come during that process itself. Normally I would spend more time with a new piece polishing up the dialogue and making sure each word and line is just right, but in this case as I will be the performer it allows me the freedom to make some of those adjustments on my feet as I hear how things work.

So things are getting underway, and soon this project will transition from the writing stage into the rehearsal stage where I will learn if everything I've written down works as well as it does in my head. Kevin and I set a first rehearsal date as well: June 10th. Just 4 weeks from tomorrow and Schrödinger's Cat Must Die! starts to come to life.

I've been a little remiss at posting during the last week or so, but my various projects continue to move along. I am continuing to revise the one-man show for Fringe, and am reaching a point where I feel the script will be ready to move into rehearsals. The nature of this show is such that I expect that many things will change during rehearsals (especially the physical bits), but my goal has always been to have as strong a working script as possible once rehearsals begin. I am also chipping away at the other tasks that will need to be done, such as taking photos (as you've seen) and working on the show description for the Fringe program. Kelly has also sent out the first few press releases to those publications with long lead times. I also spent a long weekend (I had last Thursday and Friday off) doing some projects around the house, and it was nice to do some physical rather than mental labor for a change. On Friday night I went to see Seussical: The Musical put on by Ashland Productions, whose cast included Greenies Jenna, Brianna, and Grace. It was a wonderful show, very well done, with fantastic (and fantastical) costumes! My show in Lakeshore's 10-minute play festival doesn't start rehearsals for a couple of weeks yet, but that will then keep me busy until it's time to start rehearsals for Fringe. Lastly, on Sunday I celebrated 6 wonderful years of marriage with my amazing wife Kelly, without whom so much you read about on this blog would never be possible.