Anna Tunnicliff, Neil Friberg, Bryan Woods, and Torey Baxa in The FrogsSince first experiencing one of Genesius Guild's end-of-season comedies two summers ago, I've eagerly anticipated playwright/director Don Wooten's witty work each subsequent year. His sharp, humorous, sometimes biting rewrites of Aristophanes comedies abound with political, pop-culture, and theatre references at the local and national levels. And while I've not had the honor of being personally referenced in one of his jokes - at least not while I was present - this year's The Frogs features hilariously pointed jabs at almost every theatre company in the Quad Cities area, with Saturday's performance the funniest of the three annual Guild spoofs I've yet seen.

Samantha Bestvina and Neil Friberg (foreground) and Robin Quinn (background) in MetamorphosesSitting down, preparing for the start of Augustana College's Friday-night performance of Metamorphoses, I marveled at the pool that took up a majority of the stage space, but worried that it would be a gimmicky, annoying distracting from the show - a series of vignettes based on Ovid's Greek myths.