Ripped from the Floorboards…

Sci-Fi-Q Gets Lost in IRTE’s The Experiment
By Jeremy Binderhull

His body was found stiff and cold, burn marks around his face and neck. But this didn’t look like any electrocution Chet had ever seen, and he’d witnessed a lot of them during his six years onboard the USS Juno, first transwarp space vessel in the fleet. A hazard of the job, engineering on one of the most complex machines in the known galaxy. Electrocutions were as common as airlock drills. This was something different, something Chet couldn’t wrap his wrench around. One thing was certain, Captain Rosin was dead and something strange and terrifying was going on.

~ ~ ~

This scene is just one example of what you might witness when you attend one of IRTE’s performances of their sci-fi comedy thriller, The Experiment, at this year’s Asheville Fringe Arts Festival.

Performing for two nights during the 4-day festival, the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble mixes comedy improv and science fiction in their unique brand of improvisational theater. The troupe works without a script, crafting their character relationships and stories onstage before your very eyes.

Last year IRTE won the award for “Artists Whose Work Made Me Laugh The Most” for their improvisational birthday party extravaganza, Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid! Their production for the 2018 festival (the 16th annual Asheville Fringe Arts Festival!) is a decidedly different show. Thanks to their director writing up his impressions from some of the ensemble’s rehearsals (yes, they do rehearse for their unscripted shows), we have a few more glimpses into the possible worlds awaiting audience members who dare to submit themselves to "The Experiment"... Enjoy!

~ ~ ~

Is he gone yet? I don’t hear any footsteps. He must be gone.

"He"? Why do you keep saying “he”? You saw that thing same as I did. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t know if I can call it a “he” or anything else I’ve ever known.

Did you just hear a chicken?

~ ~ ~

She gazed deep into my eyes. I could smell her breath. She’d had some of Charlie’s four-alarm chili. That was when I knew she was still human, still one of us.

~ ~ ~

Strange going-on in the mountains of western North Carolina...

Kids gone missing up in the foothills outside of Waynesville, Asheville, and Fletcher. Reports of bizarre sounds and eerie lights. These are the things that keep residents ever watchful and neighbors banding together to solve a problem local authorities seem unable to. With the winter chill firmly taken hold in these small, mountain communities, folks aren’t taking any chances. People are taking things into their own hands, and it’s about to get messy.

~ ~ ~

Find out what happens, and be a part of the action at IRTE’s The Experiment, presented by the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival

Featuring Actors: Nannette Deasy, Robert Baumgardner, Jamie Maloney, Connie Perry, and Sam Katz

Directed by Bill Berg

With Musical Guest Mike Andersen and Friends

Thursday, January 25 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, January 27 at 7 p.m.
Sly Grog Lounge, 271 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

Tickets: $13

http://www.ashevillefringe.org/events/irte-presents-experiment/

Experiment BIRTE - Good to Go!

SCI-FI-Q Gives Readers

An Inside Look at IRTE-TVs New Programming

New CEO at IRTE-TV Promises Bold New Programming

Jeremy Binderhull, Staff Writer for Sci-Fi-Q

Interviews IRTE-TV CEO Hollander Caul-de-Zak  

      

SFQ Staff file photo.

Science fiction fans respond to news from IRTE-TV with cautious anticipation.

He’s been an enigmatic presence in the regional television broadcasting industry ever since he breathed life back into dying but beloved local tv station, WXRV, thirteen short months ago, reconfiguring it as an analog/cyberspace crossover property for the digital age and renaming its flagship television brand, IRTE-TV.

Get ready to be surprised again, because Rochester’s own Rupert Murdoch is at it… again!

Hollander D. Caul-de-Zak, the brash and eccentric CEO of WXRV, and its most famous outlet, IRTE-TV, has taken a gamble with a bold new programming move. Sci-Fi Q’s award-winning blogger, Jeremy Binderhull, took a few moments the other day to sit down and stick a probe in old Hollander’s brain.

Here’s what we found out...

SFQ: (adjusting settings on recording device) Ah, let me just… Oh, we’re live - uh, we’re recording now, sir.

Caul-de-Zak: (coming at the blogger with a raised palm) I thought you told me you weren’t going to record this first part!

SFQ: Oh, I’m sorry. I thought we already finished the - I’m sorry. Here, I can turn it off.

Caul-de-Zak: Oh well! Never mind!

SFQ: What?

Caul-de-Zak: I said Go Ahead! Are you deaf?! (muttering to himself) Or just an idiot!

SFQ: What? Oh. Ok. No, sir. Ok, fine.

Hollander Caul-de-Zak sits silent, stern and stolid, not saying a word.

SFQ: Shall we continue, then? Let’s continue. Ah, I mean, where shall we begin…?

Caul-de-Zak: (twiddling his fingers as if brushing crumbs off his robe) Go ahead…

SFQ: I’m sitting here with relatively new CEO and Chief of Programming at Rochester’s own, and much beloved, WXRV, and their “offspring”, as it were… (coughs slightly) the crown jewel of Lake Ontario South Shore television programming, IRTE-TV. (covering mic and speaking directly to Mr. Caul-de-Zak) Did I say that right? Rhymes with “birdy-teevee”? (whispering) Ok, good. Thank you... Sorry.

SFQ: (clears throat) The buzz on the airwaves is you’re about to shake things up with local original and/or “renewed-retro” programming, specifically in the 5 to 9 p.m. time-slots, Monday through Wednesday, for those customers with satellite dish service or piggybacking off a strong signal from the Canada side of the lake, most likely in the Prince Edward area of the lowest southeastern portion of Ontario. That tends to give the strongest signals to us Rochesterians who like to add variety to our viewing choices… Sorry. Uh, people in the know say this is a gamble that is likely to pay off?

Caul-de-Zak: Well, I’ll tell you what, young man. I’ve been in the industry a long time for around these parts. I’ve learned a thing or two, and I know you can’t win big if you’re not willing to pony up and throw a heaping pile of chips onto the table every once in awhile.

SFQ: Yes, well people in the know are saying -

Caul-de-Zak: I know what people in the know are saying! I am People in the Know! Now let me tell you what we’re up to over here at XIRT-V - that’s what I call it, son. You can’t call it that.

SFQ: Ok, Mr. Caul-de-Zak. Of course, sir.

Caul-de-Zak: Now where was I? (twiddling his fingers again) Oh, yes. About six or seven months ago I was sitting around with my business partners, if you know what I mean, and we were discussing possible next moves for the early evening to prime time slot in our early to mid week extended programming service. And one of the guys was talking about his niece writing a story for a science fiction contest, and - oh, hell! You don’t need to know how the sausage is made! I came up with this great idea for after-school and dinner-time tv watching for our local families and extended programming tv viewers!

SFQ: Great! I’m sure our readers would love to know all about it.

Caul-de-Zak: Alright, well, it’s gonna be great!

SFQ: Great! Sir. I wonder if, perhaps, you might be able - uh, willing to share a bit more detail for our - and your - fans, sir.

Caul-de-Zak: Well, I don’t want to give too much away, but let me just say that we’re giving science fiction fans a whole new reason to tune in on weekday evenings. A whole new reason!

SFQ: Great!

Caul-de-Zak: Let me finish, son. Yes, it IS great! Now I know that nowadays young folks like their entertainment fast and cutting edge - “EXTREME!” I think they call it. People want to feel that what they’re watching is beyond real. Hell, even at the national level the lines between reality and made-up facts is getting blurred. So we’ve gone ahead a retooled many classic science fiction favorites and injected them with new life, literally! (directly to Sci-Fi Q blogger) Now this is where you ask me, “well how are you doing that?” Go ahead, now.

SFQ: Oh, now. That’s now? Ok...So, tell me sir, because I’m sure our readers are dying to know, how are you going to do that?

Caul-de-Zak: I’m glad you asked. We’ve hired a good, sturdy stable of the finest actors in the area - Regional Actors - and we’ve got them performing LIVE in front of a studio audience some of the great science fiction thrillers in motion picture history, and a few as yet unseen. And let me tell you, we’re real excited about this whole deal.

  

Regional Actors in Caul-de-Zak’s WXRV’s IRTE-TV “Experiment”

SFQ: I’ll bet you are! Oh, boy!

Caul-de-Zak: Settle down, kid!

SFQ: Sorry.

Caul-de-Zak: Anyway, as I was saying - and this bears repeating because this is major stuff happening here! We are going to broadcast a LIVE taping of a performance in front of a LIVE audience a series of sci-fi thrillers! Do you understand what I’m saying here?

SFQ: Yes, of course I do, sir!

Caul-de-Zak: This is cutting edge! This is “EXTREME”! Now print that! Or post it, or whatever it is you people do these days.

SFQ: That’s why I’m here, sir.

Caul-de-Zak: That’s why I’M here.

IRTE-TV’s thrilling new sci-fi programming, appropriately entitled The Experiment, will begin with a two-weekend premiere celebration Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., April 21, 22, 28, and 29.

Watch the creepy trailer here.

Return next week when SFQ Staff Writer, Jeremy Binderhull, brings readers an exclusive super secret look into the clandestine world of “Syracuse Soothsayers,” who claim to hold the missing link between the Star Wars and Star Trek universes.

THE EXPERIMENT

Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. 

April 21, 22, 28 and 29

The Producer’s Club

358 W 44th St, New York, NY

Tickets: $15