The Night Before

3.28.06 3:48am
Well, I got my blog just about ready to go. I've burned some cds for the car. Yes, CDs! Can you believe it? I'm also burning a DVD with 20 hours of instrumental hiphop goodness. That should keep me pretty happy. I'm tired. Luckily there's not too much to prepare, since the first janut on this trip is only overnight. I'll be back in Bustown late Wednesday. I anticipate being pretty amped-up at that point, since I'll have just seen a new SITI Co. show. This'll be the first new SITI show I've seen since systems/layers, I believe. That'll be hard to top, but since that was more of a dance piece and this is more play-like, I anticipate I'll connect more with this one.

At any rate. I'm looking forward to a week of great shows and lots of hanging out with my favorite people, most of whom are in a theatre group I used to run. Strange, that. Days coffee, Ramses world cuisine, a new Humana anthology, all the highlights of these trips.

Every year, I sit around and try to figure out - is this my 5th Humana? 6th? What was my first year here? I'm gonna figure that out and set the record straight right now.

OKAY.

My first festival was in 1999. The only show I saw was Cabin Pressure from the SITI Co., although I certainly experienced a lot of cool stuff, because that was the year of the Phone Plays, and the Car Play, and the T-Shirt Plays. But's okay, there's only one play from that year that I'm sorry to have missed. It's by Naomi Izuka.

My first full festival was in 2000. This was, many people have confirmed, the best year ever. It had 4 plays which have had significant life since, and two of them are among my favorite plays ever. I guess I got lucky. The effects of going to the 2000 Festival have not worn off, and it's that experience that keeps me dedicated to ATL, even after a lackluster year like 2005.
Also, I spent extra time in Lousiville in 2000, because I was watching SITI rehearse War of the Worlds.
And, even the intern show was good. You'll never hear me sayin that anymore.

I did not go in 2001. Too bad, I missed a Mac Wellman show and a SITI show, though I did see the SITI show later. A solid year, from what I can tell.

2002. I was back in Lousiville, with Acacia in tow. We only missed one play, The Mystery of Attraction, which we chose to skip so we could see SITI's Score a 5th time. (3 times in Columbus, twice in Louisville.) A good year, although Marc Masterson pissed me off by ruining Chuck Mee's play, and by allowing Rembrandt's Gift too occur. That remains my pick for worst Humana play in my time. Finer Noble Gases, which blew me away, was also that year.

2003. Another blockbuster year. It was the first time we took a BIG group to the Festival, representing Bustown, and more specifically, BlueForms. The Faculty Room left us shaking, Omnium-Gatherum took the back of our heads off. Kia Corthron was more than interesting, and The Second Death of Priscilla was a sight to behold, esepcially with Bondo in the lead. The other two shows were disappointing, and we found ourselves in direct disagreement with the critics, but it was a wonderful experience for everyone, I believe.

2004. Uh-oh. Trouble in Lousiville.

I'll continue this tomorrow.

We leave in 6 hours.