Today, I went with my class to see the Lightwire Production Moon Mouse, a Space Odyssey.  Lightwire is a group who use lights to preform in the dark. 

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As you can see in the video above, Lightwire uses lights to make consumes and props to put on plays in the dark.  This makes crazy creatures possible and appears to defy the laws of physics and gravity.  Playing catch in slow motion as an unseen actor moves the lit ball across the stage and characters floating in the air as two unseen people lift the actor up are only a few simple examples of what they are able to do.

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Lightwire also makes all their own props and costumes from scratch and writes all their own plays.  Here is the trailer for the play we saw today:

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        This play was creative, fun, and sent a good message.  The play was about a mouse named Marvin who was being bullied at school, so he made a spaceship to fly away to the moon.  On the moon he befriends an alien and learns they are all afraid of a bigger alien who appears to always be very angry.  The Marvin realizes the problem is the big guy cannot see well so Marvin gives him his glasses and the everyone becomes friends.  The play is full of songs and dances, though there are no words throughout the whole of the play.  This was great as it made the students watch and interpret the body language and expressions of the characters instead of relying on words!

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        After the presentation, Lightwire came out on stage to talk with the students about how the costumes are made and how everything works.  Each costume is had made from common, recyclable objects (with the exception if the lights).  They used things like helmets to build the heads on so they can be worn easily, dryer ducts for long bendy necks or legs, PVC pipe and aluminum rods for structure, bicycle breaks for opening and closing the mouth of a creature whose head may be too far to reach (such as the large dinosaur-looking alien which can be seen above), duct take and zip ties.

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        The lights are made from electroluminescent wire, or "el-wire" which emits a glowing light and can be operated by battery, so each performer controls the lighting on their own characters.  Here is a look at how some of the ceatures and effects are created and what they look like with the lights on: 

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And the Final Results:

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