h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The good news is that the script is finished. Doing these mystery night events is fun, but it is also extremely frustrating. There are so many limitations within which I'm forced to work. So whereas it might seen like a simple thing to whip up a script for a friendly little gathering, it isn't quite as easy as it sounds.

First, we have members of the Friends of the Library who want to be characters in the play. So the first thing is to figure out how many characters and how many males and females and write a script to accomodate them.

Second, it has to fit into a certain time slot. We need two acts so the audience can get up, have a snack and mill about.

Third, we have no stage, no sets, and very few props. We do it sort of in the round, with the dining tables around the outside of the room and the 'entertainment' taking place in the center.

Fourth, some of the people who always want to be in the play can barely remember the name of their characters, let alone memorize lines. So some of them always want to read from the script. Did I mention that one woman in particular garbles every line?

Fifth, it has to include some form of audience participation. A contest of sorts so someone can win a prize.

All this makes it hard to develop a plot that will work. And knowing who my actors are going to be makes it hard to come up with suitably simple dialog.

Enter the focal point. Last year I was fortunate enough to have our own Lentilla drive up from Ft. Worth with her masks, which are totally awesome. The characters wore solid black and a mask matching their character. It was sort of Greek.

This year I am using a Dia de los Muertos theme. We have an art show and contest right now with that theme, so it seems like a natural fit. And I have some Mexican clothes we can use for costumes. The focal point here will be the ofrenda. It will be the main prop, around which much of the action will take place.

I have two acts with two scenes per act. Act one, scene 1 and act two, scene 2 require no props at all. I've minimized the dialog problem by writing in a narrator who can be in the background. He/she will have most of the lines. The caterer is serving a Mexican dinner to go along with the theme. The library is full of absolutely fabulous Dia de los Muertos art.

Breathe, Hypatia. It's going to be okay.

*looks out from under his sombrero*


Hey, laydeeee, do you 'ave a role for Speedy Gonzalez?

Anderlay, anderlay - Yee Hah!!

Yikes! No mice in the library, please.

I iz veeerrrreee clean!

Well, you do have your own sombrero. And I'm sure you'd give your lines better than one person I'm thinking of. Done! Just don't all the food on the ofrenda until the play's finished.

Yayyyy!!!

You verrreee nice laydeeeeeeeeee


Now, can I introduce the rest of my famileee?




And in the otherrrr mousehole we have...

Do all of your relatives have green cards? New federal regulations, you know. I need to collect ID cards and photocopy them for our files.

Sure we have Greeeeen Carrrdz. You think we came over the border yesterday?

*flashes card*


Now, those in the mousehole in the foyer, they need watching

Tell exterminator that the mice are here and not to kill the ones wearing sombreros.

Nice laydeee... You bring us ?

How about some Monterey jack? We can fry up some tiny tortilla chips and have a fiesta! Dang. I keep forgetting where I am. It's going to need to be a quiet fiesta. Quiet as a mouse, as a matter of fact.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

We be verrreee quiet for the nice laydeee

Weee'll just dance around our sombreros

*pulls sombrero over Dmitri's eyes*

Hah! You and whose armmmeeee?

Don't need one, Speedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3W5GDkgf2w

I love that movie. It's one of the few I don't mind watching again every few months.

Green cards? Do not need no steenkin' green cards!

Hey Styx! Long time no see. I think we can use the grandfather clause to work you in.

Perdón, pero no hablo inglés.

Me asiento para mirar esto juego. *



*Forgive me, but I don't speak English. I'll sit down to watch the play.