On this day, Rick Bivens, Kenn Penn, Jesse Lafayette and yours truly put up the first show of the newly formed “Department of Redundancy Department“, a theatre group devoted to absurd performance art.

Rick, Kenn and I have been friends for year. We met through the theatre, and, oddly enough, share a birthday: February 2nd. A strange synchronicity which explains our shared interests, and our interest in sharing them, if you believe in astrology. Regardless, being a collection of “2/2” boys, we had no choice but to become the Department of Redundancy Department.

Since Rick and I both became new dads in the span of two months, we no longer had the time to participate in full-blown theatrical productions. Spending months in late evening rehearsals, culminating in a final few weeks of all-nighters, does not make one a good daddy. With the DRD, we can spend two or three hours a week in rehearsals, and still put out one high-quality 5-minute skit per month. Quality, not quantity.

The first show was “Waiting for Waiting for Godot“, a parody of Samuel Beckett’s famous play. We performed this short skit at the Bug Theatre‘s Freak Train event. Video is available on the DRD website, but of poor quality. Aw, chucks, check it out anyway!