Summer Show '05
"The Gods Must Be Stupid"

For our July 2005 summer production project, our largest cast and crew ever reunited our college folks back from break with our new graduates and high school upperclassmen to produce the original script "The Gods Must Be Stupid," an amusing look at what the mythical Greek gods might be like a few millennia after retirement.

The production as written, produced, and performed entirely by the group, our third annual of such projects.  Writing began with a series of meetings in June for brainstorming and basic scripting, then the scenes were polished individually by teams of participants.  The completed script was then staged and rehearsed for three weeks of hard work in July, culminating with performances on Friday and Saturday night of the last weekend in July.

Interested in getting a copy of our performance?  As in the past, our good friends at a local digital production company were there and recording our Friday night performance, and post production on the DVDs is expected to be completed around early September.  Anyone wishing to may purchase one of these DVDs when they become available - information on ordering will be posted here when they are available.  If you would like a direct email notifying you when they are ready, please email Program Coordinator Greg J. Hipius at hipius@twcny.rr.com or call 437-5141 and leave a message.

Check out some pictures from the event...

Here's our full cast picture, taken just after our final dress rehearsal.  Darn camera got dim around the edges... oh, and the one who sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle is our tech expert Ken (in case you were wondering why his costume is so contemporary).

Here's another cast picture of just the cast alone.  What a picturesque bunch...

Shawn King prepares the careful pleats in the kilt that will help him become Rusty, god of technology...

The action of the play opens up at present day Mount Olympus, deserted a few millennia ago after the gods retired, giving free will to humankind.  Zeus and Hera are arriving back (right) after their long absence and a lengthy trip to reach their former palace (Hera: "You should have gone before you left. You KNOW your bladder is not what it used to be!").  An endearingly pathetic  "has-been" Zeus (below) lets his love of daytime programming get the better of his meek attempts to strike his former poses of grandeur (Zeus: "Do you suppose there's... CRIME afoot?!?").

Zeus' illegitimate son Dionysis, the god of reveling and appropriately the results of Zeus' affair with a mortal, wanders in, giving the proteans instructions (left) on preparations for the upcoming gathering of the gods on Mt. Olympus (Dionysis: "Put some extra wine at my father Zeus' place, so that maybe he will be remotely interesting... OH!").  He realizes just a moment or two too late that he is speaking in the presence of his father Zeus and Hera his... um... whatever (Dionysis: "Hi, Mom... um... Hera... um... Mrs. Zeus???")

The uncomfortable family reunion are interrupted by the arrival of the elderly and possibly senile Haphaestus, god of fire, and his apprentice (or, as he says, his man-slave) Rusty, official tech support of the gods (left).  Dionysis steps out to respond to a telegram delivered by the blissfully vacant Hermes, currently serving in the new modern world as god of the postal service (right).

Next to arrive on the scene are Ares, god of war, and Athena, god of the hunt (right).  Following shortly behind them are the love gods, including both the suave Eros and the jilted and jealous Aphrodite (left and left-center).

Medusa arrives (left), and after a few moments of eye-sheilding, the others discover she has found cosmetic surgery and attained elusive beauty (left-center).  Meanwhile, Bureaucoles accepts a mysterious package delivery from Hermes (right-center), and has a  conversation with an unknown benefactor, who seems to be a co-conspirator in the plot to usurp free will from humanity.  Who is the unknown face pulling the strings behind the scenes?

In the aftermath of the battle, Act II begins with a disagreement about the manner in which Bureaucoles was conceived.  Flashbacks indicate that Zeus has a very different memory of the event (left and center) than Hera does (right)... involving not only the unimportant details, but the father himself.

Well, it all worked out in the end, of course... Bureaucoles agreed to help return free will to the humans, forming committees that will "protect the freedom of people by carefully regulating and limiting the choices we make... we'll call it Homeland Security!"  OK, maybe it was a bittersweet ending, but after all, it is a black comedy, and we wanted to try a dark ending for a change.  Besides, it was just too much fun to constantly hear tech expert Ken's political outrage from the booth at the end of each run through during the controversial lines!