OK, so it’s actually just another attempt at guerilla theater-marketing: Charter Theatre honcho Keith Bridges stars (alongside actor-playwright Chris Stezin) in a 7-minute drama about why Charter won’t be staging Richard Washer’s Quartet, originally announced for the new-play specialists’ January-February slot.

Watch (agog) as Bridges explains his emergency back-up plan to his 3-year-old daughter Rosie: “Sweetie, papa has a brilliant idea. He’s going to save his theater company by inviting Barack Obama to come see his next play, called Am I Black Enough Yet? Isn’t that brilliant?”

Viz:

Choice moment: an “outtake,” toward the end, where Bridges tries to get wee Rosie to pimp the Charter website. She’s so over it that she won’t even wave bye-bye when he finally gives up.

Backstory: Charter lost one of the cast members for Quartet — a play that was already “a tough sell,” according to Stezin. (It’s not a comedy. It’s “a low-key, thoughtful piece,” and its musically-inspired structure is anything but orthodox.)

“Bad mojo started to pile up,” Stezin says, and with every theater in town having trouble putting butts in seats, a postponement seemed the best thing for Quartet.

And as the company’s leadership talked about replacements, they realized that Am I Black Enough Yet?, a 2007 hit, “wasn’t just our best selling show last season — but our best-selling show ever,” Stezin says.

And so, a revival. And, coming down the pipe: More episodes of Charter’s serialized YouTube drama. And with any luck, a newly elected special guest and his family in the good seats.

“You can always dream,” Stezin says. “We’d love to get the attention of somebody on the Obama campaign.”

Via Boing-Boing, this Firefox plug-in, which conveniently hides the YouTube comments least likely to be useful–those filled with misspellings, profanity, you know, Internet talk. What I’d love is a plug-in that worked on every site, so I’d never again have to read “Slow news day?” or “FAIL” or anything by Don Smith.

I kid, Don, I kid!

I’m probably the last person to see this, but I still think it’s worth posting. This video provides enough reason for people to use better bike locks (and use them correctly).