“Captain, you’re asking me to fight with equipment which isn’t far ahead of silver cardboard and black spray-painted broom handles …” |
When I heard that a group of local actors/Star Trek fans was recreating Theodore Sturgeon’s famous “Amok Time” episode as an open-air theater production, I was excited—though as a still-disaffected Gen-Xer, this excitement had more to do with the promise of some delightfully high-camp rather than the prospect of taking in a good bit of drama en plein air. And a broke-ass Gen-Xer, the fact that it was free made me rub my hands together like Scrooge McDuck. I tried to get my family to share my excitement. Free! Campy! In a park! My 11-year old daughter sighed with eye-rolling sarcasm.
“It’s not going to be a bunch of geeks, is it?”
My husband barked a throaty guffaw which my daughter did not find reassuring.
“Oh no, my darling,” I quickly interrupted, glaring at my husband. “There is absolutely no chance that a bunch of fans putting on a free community-theater performance of a Star Trek episode in a park amphitheater could be geeky in any way.”