The Final Frontier Is… the Park!

Spock’s the only one with the right sideburns.

That’s my one quibble—my one über-nerdy
complaint—about Trek in the Park. In Star Trek,
dudes’ sideburns are always pointy, shaved down into weird little
futuristic points—but in Trek in the Park? Only Jesse
Graff, who plays Spock, has appropriately manscaped his sideburns.

Embarrassing trivia about exactly what William Shatner’s sideburns
looked like four decades ago aside, Trek in the Park is some of
the most fun I’ve had watching theater. Nerds, families, nerd families,
hipsters, and bewildered neighborhood kids packed Woodlawn Park last
weekend, watching as upstart theater company Atomic Arts reenacted
classic Trek episode “Amok Time.” (It’s the one where Spock goes
into heat and fights Captain Kirk TO THE DEATH!)

Rather than imitate the tics of Shatner, Nimoy, et al., the solid
Atomic Arts crew plays the characters as straight as they were
originally written (Graff as Spock, along with Ryan Castro as Chekov,
are particular standouts), and with a minimal set, cleverly designed
props, and live music and sound effects, Trek in the Park is smart, hilarious, and the perfect thing to do on a summer afternoon. Plus, if
the brief “teaser” performed at the end of the play is any indication,
next summer Atomic Arts will perform another classic Trek episode, “Space Seed.” That’s the one with Khan! I am so there.