BooTown Stages LOVE IN THE TIME OF LASERS, Now thru 2/9

Ah, young love - the awkward pauses, the nervous laughter, the sweaty palms, the laser-shooting dinosaurs ... Oh, right. That's not normal.

BooTown presents Love in the Time of Lasers, a 21st century romance with a sci-fi twist. (See: dinosaurs, lasers.) The production employs table-top puppets, stop-motion animation and a number of puppetry techniques to tell the story of a couple's quest to fall (and stay) in love. Take away the dinos and dating is still tough. Above all, Love in the Time of Lasers chronicles the joys and difficulties of transforming a mutual crush into boyfriend/girlfriend status.

First, our couple meets across the record store. But then, there's the questions. What do I do? What do I say? Have I had too much to drink? Can I add her/him on Facebook? Is it OK to start sexting? As things progress, the questions only get harder. Meet parents? Become roommates? Get matching tattoos?

BooTown's co-artistic director Lindsay Burleson conceived and wrote the show with longtime friend Andrew Keil who lives in New York. The pair has been collaborating on the show since the summer via cell phone and Internet. "It's interesting to have to Skype someone to discuss writer's block and whether or not we should install blood canons or glitter bombs," says Burleson.

The show will be preceded by an original puppet piece, Sitcom, by BooTown friend Joe Wozny. Sitcom is about an ordinary couple forced to confront the parts and roles they've played. (P.S. The show is built out of recycled bar materials. Everyone's drunk.)

The production runs tonight, January 25 through February 9 at Shoparama (Main and Winbern), 14 Pews, and Rudyard's British Pub. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and can be purchased at the door. For more information, visit www.bootown.org.