I was guest curator for the last show of the season ending in 2008. John Wilson was my co-curator. Not having been a curator before I was apprehensive about doing it, but very thrilled as well since I have been a subscriber to OtB for years and have been going to 12 Minutes Max for years as well. I was so thrilled that I skipped plans to go to San Francisco’s Symphonies Black & White Ball, something I haven’t missed since 1981. John Wilson, my co-curator, is a very experienced teacher at Cornish who specializes in dramaturgy. He is an amazing and wonderful person to work with, providing a great depth of theatrical knowledge and the ability to express it in a constructive, positive, and thoughtful way. Sean Ryan of OtB coordinated everything and has obviously been doing this for a while since the whole experienced worked like clockwork. There were 15 acts that had signed up to audition. Two of them were on DVD (One from Canada, another from New York[artists take note: one of the DVDs could not be read at all-check them before sending]). Most of the acts where great, which made it difficult for John and I to make decisions about who we wanted in the show. Since we are two people with different ideas and tastes it was interesting, but not unexpected that we strongly agreed on some things, had mild disagreements about others, and - most difficult - entirely different opinions on some of the acts. I think we spent at least an extra hour in friendly discussion, each at turn taking each other’s side, in hammering out the differences and what to include to make a good show. Everything worked out in the end and I think we both felt we had put together something that people would find thought provoking and entertaining. More of my experience to follow after the performances ”¦ -Mark Chandler