Tonight’s a special night for SidViscous!.

Firstly, it’s the premiere of our play, the first real, rehearsed, scripted thing we’ve ever done, entitled My Daughter, My Wife.  Written by our members Phil Wells and Desireé Nash specifically to be performed by us, this thing has been gestating for a long, long time.  Tonight, it finally comes to a head.

This little improv group has been through a lot together, in case you don’t know.  We were originally formed in early 2007 by The PIT’s team-making committee of faculty and staff members, out of their annual auditions.  Some of us had come up through the theater’s classes together, some of us had been on teams together previously, some of us were meeting for the first time.  Regardless, we bonded immediately and became like a little family, which was something of a rarity in those days.

Since then, a bunch of stuff has happened.  Two of our original members were removed by the theater the following year and replaced with Desireé, who had just auditioned for the first time.  Another year later, we were dismantled altogether and redistributed onto new teams, but decided to continue on as an “indie” group.  We became a bit of a fixture at improv and comedy festivals all over the East Coast.  Two other members quit of their own accord.  Another joined.  We took our whole approach to improv into new, weirdly theatrical and experimental territory.

But through it all, and despite the changes, it’s always felt like one long progression by that same family unit we forged from the beginning.

This play debuting tonight has its roots in a series of meetings we had following our dissolution by The PIT in 2009.  While I won’t presume to speak for the other members, I can say that I, for one, was pretty upset about it (the break-up, not the play).  I don’t remember all the nuanced rationales behind my various feelings at the time, but suffice to say, I felt hurt and confused by the decision.  I was also concerned: We had always said we would continue to perform together even if we were broken up, but now that it had actually happened, would we follow through?

Our meetings centered around brainstorming ideas for projects to keep us active and set us apart from the rest of the indie improv pack.  Someone (Phil?) suggested working on a play.  I remember being apprehensive about the idea of doing scripted material at first, believing for some reason that it was important for us to stay true to our improv roots.  In hindsight it was silly for that to matter to me in the first place, but I didn’t take long to come around.

The story of My Daughter, My Wife is an expanded version of a sketch by the same title that Phil wrote during our first year, which he had originally envisioned as a five minute video.  About a year ago, it became shit-or-get-off-the-pot time for this whole play idea, so he and Desireé teamed up and cranked it out.  We rehearsed for months, got a director, rehearsed some more, and here we are.

Tonight happens to be the fifth anniversary of SidViscous!’s first improv show ever, back in 2007, with the original cast.  That’s the other reason tonight is a special night for us, for those of you who had been wondering when I was going to write, “Secondly…”

It feels fitting that this is finally happening to coincide with that landmark.  What does the future hold for this team and this play?  Who knows.  Maybe we’ll do another run of it.  Maybe we’ll mount ever-expanding versions of it and take this thing all the way to Old Broad-way.  Maybe nothing.

Regardless, I’m truly proud of this team and how far it’s come.  They’re some of my best friends and favorite performers both to watch and to work with, and I can’t wait to bring it full circle tonight.

But I still hate that fucking name.

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P.S. The play is extremely funny and I hope you’ll come see it, if not tonight then on February 21st or 28th at 8PM.  Tickets available here.

Also, we still have a little ways to go on our Kickstarter fundraiser to cover production costs.  Any donation you can afford to make would be much appreciated, as are all the ones we’ve received already.  Thank you!