Looking back, I am amazed at the fact that a group of raw talent, just out of a mere eight weeks' worth of workshops could be able to perform the intricate longform improv "Harold" (a 20-30 minute structure in which three separate story lines were spun and eventually joined for a grand finale) as the second half of our show every single week.

Josh White, our second artistic director, moved the longform out of the confining structures of the Harold and into a full One Act Play made up on the spot with nothing more than a fictitious play title given by an audience member. As a result, we were privileged to perform everything from "Dr. Harvey Wartburger and his Three-Headed Llama" to the MacBeth sequel, "The Revenge of Donalbain".

One of the Duck's greatest strengths is music. Musical Director Scott Anderson has taken people who swore they could never sing a note and taught them how to sing any song in any style on the spot. I am very proud of the fact that Del Close told a workshop at the Spontaneous Combustion Festival in 1996, "If you're going to do music onstage, do it like those people from Boston."

In the past few years, the Duck has kept moving forward artistically. Our trips to festivals in Austin, TX and Kansas City, MO only served to accelerate the innovation process. We took the new developments and structures and set to making them our own in short order. In the past nine months, we have gone from doing standard improv sets to a completely unscripted show. All we know is that tonight's show will start with the Blues and end with the Madrigal. Nothing in between is scripted. We have no idea what is coming next any more than the audience does.

The two mandates set by Adam Felber culminate in the extraordinary group of performers you see tonight. I am tremendously proud to perform with them.

Sincerely

Kristin Hall, Artistic Director