Details below!!
If you're getting this email its because you've bought tickets to my liddle show!!
First!
Time: it'll be at 7:30. If this time is no good for you I can move it to 6:30. Please email me to confirm if you prefer 7:30 or 6:30.
Location: my house, 15 Thompson Street. Public transport to Macaulay Station. Parking on Lambeth Street or Stubbs Street. If you bike, I have a bike shed I can let you in to.
Expectations: There are 11 of you attending. This is a good size. I'm very excited for you all to see it. The current run time is about 15-20 mins and I think I'll successfully stick to that. Ill make a while bunch of vegan chilli and after the show, if you wish, you can stay and eat together if you would like.
Production value: I've spent a bit of time trying to get lighting and sound. Sound was going great until my cassette deck broke!! I tried to fix it but have failed as it needs a new motor. I've requested assistance from Jorge the radio specialist, who has told me the value of my cassette deck does not warrant repair... I'm going to head to Jaycar and pick up a new motor, and if that doesn't work I have a backup. Lighting will probably just be some torches that stay on the whole time.
Content: The play is mostly about the CPU. How it works, how it operates and how I relate to it. Expect a song on a banjo, lots of info-dumping about computers and maybe a heartfelt monologue or two. I'm hoping also to build a computer on stage using some of the parts I have scrounged but I need to practice to make sure it'll work.
Admin: this set of plays is deliberately difficult to engage with. There's a lot of emailing and sending of money manually and it's difficult to share. If I had the trappings of a normal play (some kind of ticketing app, mailing list, etc) that would set expectations of a normal play. This is not that. If you have a friend who wants to come but cannot make it, ask me to change the date or time. If you have a cool idea you think should be in play, email me. It's more work on your half, sorry.
Extra:
Okay I've done tons of research about computers and almost 90% of it won't end up in the play. Here is some info explaining a compiler, something I found really interesting but didn't fit into the play anywhere.
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Essentially, the CPU is the robot in a computer that receives commands from us, the user, and does things. Or tells other things to do things. It's the central processor. The processor in the centre. The brain.
You add a formula to a cell in excel? It's the CPU that says "go to section 10100001 and add 1 so it says 100010". Then that displays on our screen as 34 in cell A1.
A CPU doesn't understand our language. It doesn't understand "go to section". It only understands something called "Machine Code". Machine code is only written in binary, is different to each CPU, and is practically unreadable to humans.
Machine code is mostly a table.
G1: go to section
H2: Add
J7: Subtract
Etc.
Now looking up a table and writing out everything in machine code would be exhausting, which is why we invented other coding languages. C, java, python etc.
Now you should be asking... but what language are those languages written in? Is every language written in machine code?
No!
That would suck!
Instead!
The language is written in!
Itself!!
???????
We do this by using a tool called a compiler.
A compiler gets all the human readable, comment filled code that we've written in python and "compiles" it into machine code. Now the CPU can understand what we've written.
Since the compiler is able to take the words of python and convert it into machine code, to write more python we simply write a new compiler in python and ask our old compiler to compile it. Now we have a new compiler that can handle our new code?!?!
The very first compiler (technically an assembler but ignore that for now) was built in machine code, and it "compiled" a language known as "Assembly Language". That first compiler/assembler was written manually in machine code by Kathleen Booth.
This whole process of using an old compiler to make a new compiler is called "bootstrapping" coming from the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps". This is also why turning your computer on is called "booting". Everytime you turn your computer on, it essentially "compiles" itself all over again until you have the fancy schmancy windows logo. This is why turning it off and on again fixes so many things. Your computer basically rebuilds itself from the ground up, and overwrites whatever bug you generated while playing Stardew Valley.
Okay, the show will be much less tech heavy than that but see you all soon!
