Dry Run premiered on Thursday, December 15, 2005 at Exploratorium in San Francisco as a part of the Situation Abnormal performance series. Dry Run was performed as a rehearsal for an experience. It was performed without prior rehearsal as notated in the accompanying Dry Run script. The audience were hired as extras for $5/head before entering McBean theatre. Several extras received zombie makeovers from professional special fx artists during the performance. All cast and crew were fed pizza in Scene XI.
The zombie makeovers functioned in compliment to questions surrounding experience, as framed in Dry Run. What constitutes an experience? Where does experience reside in time-space? How long does it take to have an experience? Do our expectations built on our prior experiences limit our mind's capacity to remain open to new experiences? As members of society we are inundated with option-based systems. We perform routines day in and day out. The machine tells us which experience we should be having based on which routine we are enacting. What affect do routines have on our minds, our behavior?
Dry Run is part experience makeover and part makeover experience. Like the undead, Dry Run is neither here nor there. Like the undead, its participants are caught between infection and healing. The theatre functions as a triage center for disrepair. They are infected with curiosity and hungry for new experiences. Dry Run anticipates that they have come to this performance to feed their brains.
This is an incomplete statement. I will be posting a revised statement and additional photo and video documents soon.
Dry Run was written and directed by Kristin Lucas. A list of cast and crew is available here. The script is available for download.