Written by Daniel Mozurkewich. Photos by Joe Goudreault. Premiered at Otherworld Theater as part of The Runaways Lab Theatre’s experimental short-play festival, The Doing Drug & Dying in Space Ritual, November 2019. I performed as The Barker .

The court of Lord Tyrannosaur is brought to order! The accused: a man who dared defy Tyrannosaur’s rule over the airwaves, and listen to all kinds of unsanctioned music. To prove his innocence, he must dance for his life. This is their story.

The Doing Drugs & Dying in Space short play festival was an explosion of dadaist sci-fi absurdity, and my role in “The Emerald Court of Justice” demanded nothing less. On the page, my role of The Barker contained a single monologue laying the foundation for the action to come. Yet onstage, it became an intense and physically demanding part. I invented a movement sequence for the Barker’s monologue, and danced my way through the text in a mixture of different styles; I included moves from hopak, the Ukrainian dance more commonly referred to as the “Cossack”. The sequence on top of the monologue pushed me as a performer, as I felt I needed to throw the play into motion with an intense burst of energy.

My favorite moment of the show developed on the last day of rehearsal. In my opening speech, I would talk about a small worm—played by a Trolli-brand gummy—who had witnessed the crime and informed the court (don’t ask). At the end of my speech, I crushed the worm underfoot. On the last day of rehearsal, I started improvising a silent bit later in the scene, where I would peel the worm off my shoe and eat it as discreetly as I could. The director caught on, loved it, and the bit ended up in the show.

As pancaked worms go, it wasn’t half-bad.