Call for Auditions

This Friday, the Psyhigh Theater Company is holding open auditions for our Winter performance of the Chthonic Follies. A large number of players are needed for this production, and any students with a love for the theater are welcome to apply. Some background in ritual magic a plus.

Auditions will be held in the theater annex - The Weird Laboratory - at 5:34 pm, to correspond with the new moon.

Hope to see you there!

Ricky McRibbons
Student Stage Manager Supervisor

I was president of the Theatrical Appreciation Club at my old school, and wrote, directed, and performed all roles in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which played to sold-out houses for the duration of its run, which was the entire school year.

I also played the part of each audience member.

See you Friday, @Ricky McRibbons!

yo rickey! what about tech? lights and sounds and sets and such? friday too? i can make it rain!

Hello @Ringo Mc Vee - Very sorry for the delay in my response.

Yes! Please come. For tech, we're looking not only for weather specialists, but earth shifting and light as well. However, telepathic translation will be covered by the school as part of the PSD act, through an official contractor.

Ricky McRibbons
Student Stage Manager Supervisor

Hey, @Ricky McRibbons, what's up with this show? Are you in rehearsal? I haven't seen anything about it on campus. Are you still looking for cast or crew? Selling tickets?

I've got a history with mystery plays, and would love to see what you've got going!

Gabs

Hello @Gabrinella,

Sorry for the delay in my reply. The Chthonic Follies have gone underground, and we don't have internet down there, so I'm only able to check in when I come up to load the llamas up with supplies.

Being a part of The Chthonic Follies is a major commitment - we've got some big Hollow Earth sponsors, who insist that we do all our rehearsals quite a bit of a way down there. Cast and crew are getting time-and-a-half on their credits, so it's well worth the experience, but it means living a number of miles beneath the surface, with no contact with topside for weeks on end.

If you think you're ready to be a part, take the path into the cellars under the Manor House and take the third tunnel on the left around the Spongiform Unimind. You'll need to walk almost a mile until you come to the door. Knock three times short, two times long, then begin your prepared audition routine. When you're finished, wait, and if you make the cut we'll open the door within two hours.

Break a leg!

Ricky McRibbons
Student Stage Manager Supervisor

Just returned from my first stint in the "Deep Deep Down." Since I'm the newbie, I got llama duty coming up for supplies. We'll spend a night topside while I get everything rounded up, then load them llamas and head back down! Yee-haw!

Seriously, it is so amazing down there. You would not believe how gorgeous it is. @Ricky McRibbons's sponsors have given us our own place - we call it The Dojo, because it's all beautiful tatami mats and sliding doors. All the architecture down there (that I've seen, anyway) has this sort of Asian flair... curly horns on the corners of the roofs, wonderful gardens and paths and stone steps.

I guess it's just a small village - apparently there are much bigger cities and towns. In fact, I think I've been able to see part of the next town, way out in the misty hills and crags where the surface of the interior starts to curve. It's like the horizon is turned inside out... but then there's cliffs and chasms and outcroppings and caves and ledges as high as you can see too, with stairs carved right into the rock, spiraling up and up.

Oh! And (obviously) it's not dark and dank at all. Light is everywhere! There's a miniature freaking sun down there! Or, that's what I'm told. And it's made of crystal. It's somewhere even deeper in the interior. Mist and fog float through the big open spaces, but mostly it's clear and the air is crisp, and because of the continuous mild light, it's like an eternal springtime. There's camellias and flowering trees and grasses and vines. It smells wonderful. Also - ladybugs as big as your fist! And rainbows!

Sigh. Yes not really missing it up here at all. I can't believe I get time and a half on credits for being down there. Hardship my butt!

But shhh don't tell! ;)

Ok, got to go feed the llamas. They get edgy when they're topside too.

I thought the llamas knew their way, but I ended up getting very, very, lost. Thank god for Luna Bars. I had a backpack full of them.

After days and days of dark and dusty tunnels, I finally saw a light and pulled the llamas up through it. Once we made it out, it was just as stunning as before - rainbows shimmering in the mist, clover and flowing trees, cliffs and crags as far and high as I could see. Beautiful and breathtaking.

But this village was different. Same kind of people - I feel like I'm on a transfer program to Tibet? - but the buildings are taller, and it gets more "sun" (or whatever the light comes from). They're friendly to travelers too, and I got the llamas boarded and a room for me with some easy trades, even though we don't share a word in common.

One great thing they have here is wifi. ;) Well, it's a kind of pulsating crystal, but with it around I'm able to get a signal, and hence, post! And proximity to it seems to charge batteries too.

Hopefully @Ricky McRibbons will see this and... then what? I don't want to try finding my way back through the tunnels again. How do I find their village?

In the meantime, I'm kickin' it here. Near the entrance to the tunnel there's a waterfall - and get this - it runs UP! The gravity does some weird tricks down here, especially near the tunnels. When you're "in," then "up" is toward the center of the earth, and "down" is back to the surface. You don't notice the flip on your way down through the tunnels, but - where this waterfall is, for instance - there are still what I suppose you would call "gravitational anomalies." And mighty pretty ones too. :)

Guess we didn't really work out an emergency plan for this kind of thing.

Underearth Travelogue: Day 43

Upon deciding that I couldn't simply wait for @Ricky McRibbons to appear and save me, I immediately checked out of my rooms, visited the stables where the llamas where being boarded, and arranged to trade the lot of them for a Sh'Krit - one of the huge, hairy, tarantula-like creatures most commonly used for transportation here in the Underearth.

The saddle of the Sh'Krit has an obscene number of straps and buckles, but the traveler is well advised to buckle each and every one! The beauty of the Sh'Krit is its ability to climb the vertical rock faces that make up a huge amount of the surface area down here. They can even climb on the ceiling rock, should you find the need. The rider straps themselves in tight - and all their saddle bags too - and must be prepared for 360 degrees of orientation. If they need to, the Sh'Krit can skitter quite fast across almost any dry surface. Also - very smooth ride!

I'd been taking Sh'Krit lessons from the handsome stable boy at the stables for a few weeks, and was comfortable with this particular animal, which I have named Tomnoddy.

Everything was going just fine and I had made my goodbyes and was on my way down one of the beautiful country back roads out of town. The glow of the distant Central Crystal was warm through the massive, rocky, honeycombed landscape... the usual rainbows shimmering through the occasional drifting fog bank or whitewater mist... a bumblebee as big as your head buzzing by... and a giant black spider blocking my path.

It was the local law enforcement. They didn't seem very interested in me during my time in town, but now, on my way out, they were eager to "put things in order." My language ability has come a long way (also thanks to the stable boy), and it seemed my lack of papers, language, inoculations, and who knows what else were suddenly hugely important issues.

It's amazing how far a box of Luna Bars can go. I still can't read their script, but I ended up with some kind of official looking paper out of it. For all I know it says "The bearer of this paper is a sucker, and will provide you all the Luna Bars you like if you just shake her up a little bit." But who knows?

I guess I'm off to find out!

Underearth Travelogue: Day 82

It's been over a month that I've been on my own - just a girl and her enormous hairy riding spider. We travel from town to town, looking for the village where @Ricky McRibbons and the theater kids are holed up, but no luck so far. Nothing but blank stares and smiling nods. I end up spending a night or two in each town, making some trades with my dwindling supply of Luna Bars and other items from topside, and learning more about this underground land.

The Sh'Krit gets fed an cared for at the stables of whatever inn we find. He makes friends where ever he goes, which is surprising for a truck-sized tarantula. People love to scratch him behind the mandibles and bring out their best giant aphid thingies for him to sink his fangs into and suck. There are more of his kind in the stables, but people seem to think he's special. Of course, I do too.

Those giant aphids are his natural food, and they haven't been hard to find in the wild, on the occasions we set up camp in the hinterlands between towns. I take the saddle off Old Tomnoddy and let him roam. He never strays too far, and I watch him hunting those giant aphids, then pouncing on them and sucking them dry.

I haven't had any further trouble from the local authorities. In fact I hardly ever see anybody who seems like they're a cop or sheriff. I don't suppose there's much for them to do, as I haven't really seen anything like crime here either. The people live simply, growing food, raising normal enough looking chickens or goats. Handmade clothes, no machines to speak of outside of wooden farm equipment. I see no great class differences between people, and the weather never changes - it's perfect all the time.

Is this all there is to this giant subterranean civilization? No kings, no cops, no homeless people? Just happy farmers and masons and woodwrights, doing their thing for thousands of years, watching their rainbow mists and petting their giant spider mounts?

Not really so bad, if you think about it.