Because we probably never actually explained publicly how we planned to wrap up this ridiculous competition, we will do so now. We took the winning pieces from each round, and put them all against each other in the Best of the Best Finals Weekend of ShortLived. Because “Kung Foolery” won two rounds, we then had 3 wild card slots to fill at our discretion. And for the hell of it (read: we already had auditioners booked, and Xocko has a HUGE ego) we decided to throw in “The Stand-In” for good measure. Whichever piece scored the highest over the whole weekend, would win the entire competition. The Finals line-up in order of presentation:

The Stand-In

Death in an Elevator

Road Trip

Epistemology

Kung Foolery

Playwriting 101

Viking Battle

Show Must Go On

Twice As Bright

The week leading up to Best of the Best, Finals Weekend, PianoFight put in some hours at the theater and built (big shocker) ... a bar. Our bar on hand, our line up set, our actors pumped, musical acts booked, and both shows already sold out, we headed into Finals Weekend with the intensity of a manic banshee. And what a weekend it was ...

By 8:00 pm Friday night the crowd was packed in, seated in the aisle, on the floor of the stage, standing on chairs and stools in the back - if the theater had rafters, our crowd would have been swinging from them. Opening the show was our musical guest Toby Dick, two guys who rock socks off with their eyes closed. Each piece went off with a bang, each actor bringing their A game and mercilessly tickling the audience into loud roars of laughter and approval. After all was said and done Friday, “Road Trip” had pulled into the lead by 16 points.

Saturday was even more manic. Naturally, PianoFight spent the day in bed recovering from the previous evening’s festivities. By show time, the theater was bursting at the seams with people. Kicking off the show was another great musical act, the trio of Stefanie Croff, Bear Erickson, and Nate Keezer. After their silky smooth opening we launched right into “The Stand-In”, featuring none other than San Francisco Ballet’s Executive Director Glenn McCoy going head to head with PianoFight star Xocko. For the first time ever in the run, Glenn managed to rouse a raucous round of applause mid-scene and right then we knew the show would cook. The “We Want More!” chant rocking through the theater at the end of intermission proved us right. 

Then in true PianoFight fashion, we fucked up the end. In the last minutes of the 26th show of ShortLived, we tallied the scores from Saturday, added them to Friday’s results, and announced the winner.

About an hour into the cast party, one cast member, decided to do a recount. And yes, you guessed it ... we had announced the wrong winner.

So, without further ado, the real winner of PianoFight’s three month battle of writers, ShortLived, by a margin of one single point:

Daniel Heath for his script “Twice As Bright”.

Congrats to Daniel, and thanks to everyone who saw the show. Thanks to all the musicians who played throughout the run, thanks to the auditioners who all stood tough against Xocko, and most importantly, thanks to the writers who so graciously allowed us to perform their excellent work.

Video of “Twice As Bright” on Saturday to come, as well as footage of us screwing the pooch by announcing the wrong winner. In the mean time, here are some pics snapped by our kick-ass audience (thanks to Erica, Inga and the bows!).