comment: |
  {{{
  Mrs. Schiff, who just wants the show to go on
    Art is the highest thing

  * Personal in-it-for-the-art wants to make good plays.
  ** Talk to everyone in game about it.
  ** Set of secrets related to art?
  * Looking for an assistant/dramaturge

  * Question: Why do we do art?/Why does art matter?
  ** Answer1: "Because we can't do anything else."
  ** Answer2: "To fill the emptiness of life."
  }}}
name: \mf{Mr.}{Mrs.} Schiff
player: Kevin Riggle
gender: m
stuff: |
  [[Actors]], 
  [[Persuasive]], [[Dedicated]]
  [[SchiffFalse1]],
  [[Trophy]]
contacts: |
  \Max{One of the most senior actors with the company.  Generally reliable,
    though \they hasn't been the same since \their friend \Sid vanished
    a while ago.}
  \IndianaJones{A recent arrival.  Seems really interested in all the nooks
    and crannies of the tower.}
  \Tantalus{Can sometimes be difficult to work with.  Seems to think acting
    is beneath \them, but is grateful for a job just the same.}
  \UnicornLover{Still hasn't gotten over the normal teenage awkwardness
  and uncertainty.  Seems to be a good kid, with some confusing ideas
  at times.}
  \AirshipDude{Your master constructgineer, responsible for your sets and
  major props.}
  \Mathematician{Rather loopy.  Too much math can do that to someone.
    You don't think \they was a robot when \they joined the troupe.  Or
    maybe \they was just disguised as a human back then?  What name did
    \they give, originally?  Paul?}
  \PulpScientist{A newcomer.  Friends with \AirshipDude{\first}.}
  \DrugLord{Definitely into the seedier side of things, but full of 
    artistic creativity.}
  \Tara{A pirate you hired to deal with lighting for the shows.  Great
    at climbing around above the stage, but no actual lighting engineer
    experience.}
  \RealityShowDude{Takes a lot of influence from modern media like
    television and movies.  Has a good, unique perspective.}
  \TribblesDude{Brings a... unique enthusiasm to \their roles.}
  \Rahu{Seems much more preoccupied with ancient grudges than with acting,
    a bit like \Tantalus.  You're not really sure why \they joined the
    company, actually.  Having a disembodied flying head for an actor
    comes in handy quite often, however.}
  \InkCatherly{One of the younger actors.  You don't quite remember how
    \they joined the company.  You seem to remember someone else playing
    \them in a play, but that doesn't make much sense.  Why wouldn't \they
    play \them{}self?}
  \CancerGirl{Always sad.  You've tried to get \them to open up, but \they
    mostly seems to want to keep to \their{}self.}
body: |
  \cenquote{“You can’t possibly expect me to show any fear,” Martin points out. “I manage a theater.”}{//Jack o'Lantern Girl//}

  > I apologize most profusely,

  \noindent
  you begin, always finding it easiest to gather your thoughts if you
  frame them as an announcement to an imaginary audience,

  > for this delay in the natural procession of our performance.  As I'm
  sure you are well aware, the Show must go on.  This philosophy has been our
  guiding principle since the founding of our Company, and it has stood
  as a beacon, lighting our path, through times of dark and storm.  And
  whether or not it may serve quite so aptly in the present circumstances,
  it is this which we must cling to when all else falls.  And it would
  be amiss of me were I to end my pursuit of acting greatness or my
  stated intention of granting said greatness the most prestigious award
  it is my ability to grant, in addition to a starring role in our
  upcoming season.

  >I wasn't always in theater, of course.  I was once a \mf{simple
  geology teacher}{idle princess}, and I thought little of such
  things.  I na\"ively thought shows mere idle
  entertainment.  But all things change, I'm sure you will agree, and
  I have changed with them.  I met my love.  I came to the Tower.  And
  now I put on Shows.

  > It's not, strictly speaking, my Tower, or my Company,

  \noindent
  you admit;

  > I'm just the dramaturge.  But the Company's a family to me.  And,
  to be frank, they'd be hopeless without me, without my monologues to
  delay for time, without my attention to business matters, without my
  ability to do paperwork and talk to health inspectors, without my
  casual swallowing of horrors.  Such tasks must fall to someone; and
  I am in search, if I may confide, of an assistant to follow in my
  path.  An apprentice, if you will.  Someone that will lend me
  confidence that my duties will be well in hand if the slings of
  misfortune or the waves of chance may knock me from my place with
  the company.  For none can know what storms the future may hold, so
  they say.  I can promise such a one but hard work and the rewards of
  a job bettering the world through art.  For, as you see, my
  authority, to the extent that I have any, is but the respect I've
  earned and my drive to keep things going through thick and thin.

  > And I expect no objection when I say,

  \noindent
  you continue,

  > that this situation is certainly thin.  Never before, in all of
  recorded history, has an entire theatre company been lifted from
  their regularly-scheduled dress rehearsal into a non-existent realm
  outside all known cartography!  This by itself may seem a most
  amazing marvel of geology.  "Surely," I can see you say to
  yourselves, "in such unprecedented circumstances, the \Actors{} can
  hardly continue performing.  They must look to their safety and their
  escape, and not to their art."  To this I say, do you have so little
  confidence in us, ladies and gentlemen?  To abandon our art in times
  such as these would abandon the only structure remaining in our lives!
  Indeed, it would remove the one structure that seems to keep this
  realm from collapse!  No, brave audience, we are stronger than this.
  Our Shows must continue.  For without the Shows, what are we?

  > A horrid and unquestionable warden recently asked me,

  \noindent
  you conclude, almost as an afterthought,

  > **"Why does art matter?"**  This, you see, is the question that binds
  me here, in this realm sequestered away from reality.
  Perhaps, by the end of the... evening's
  performances, we will have found the answer.  And now, without further
  ado, I present, the \Actors{}!

  == Goals ==

  * Put on Shows.  Make the Shows as good as possible.  Make sure everyone
  else takes them seriously, too.  The Show must go on.
  * Encourage people to challenge themselves artisticly, and use the
  Elements fate hands them even if they're hard to use or not the sort of thing
  they want to deal with in a play.
  * Determine who the most worthy actor is and give them \Trophy.
  * Consult with those around you about what makes something art and
  what should be going into the Shows.
  * Answer your question, so you can get back to the Tower and your ordinary
  dramaturgy.
  * Find a worthy assistant to follow in your footsteps.
  * Help the other Actors escape as well.  You can't put on Shows alone,
  after all!
username:
badgedesc: A Tall, Well-dressed \Human
number: <<parent.this />>
castinghint: |
  Your character is \name, an actor newly arrived in the Place
  without Recourse. The play must go on, and you (as the dramaturge)
  are here to ensure that it does.

  Costuming:\\
  \mf{Geology teacher}{Indian princess} turned dramaturge.

  Suggested reading:\\
  http://imago.hitherby.com/2004/03/regarding-headless-goats/
wrapup: <<parent.this />>
CR: <<parent.this />>
password: <<parent.this />>
claimedby: Xavid
status: Draft
answers: |
  [[SchiffAnswer1]], [[SchiffAnswer2]]
email: kevinr@free-dissociation.com
