![]() “I was like, ‘If you want, you can see demos or read the book so you know what we’re doing.’ He was like, ‘No, I trust you guys.’” “I offered several times to send him the libretto,” Wegner said. The first act of Word Nerd, Shortz suggested, could replace the talent show that the ACPT traditionally hosts before the final round of competition. To Wegner’s surprise, Shortz responded to the message directly and took him up on his offer. He sent a message through the contact form of the website, asking for discounted tickets to the event and offering, “mostly joking,” that the cast could sing selections from the show for their admission. Tickets, however, proved too expensive for Wegner to purchase for himself and other members of the production - spectator tickets for the weekend-long event cost $145 apiece. ![]() When Wegner learned that the tournament was held so close to Yale, he looked into spectator tickets in the hopes of attending to conduct research for the production. In the final round, which took place Sunday, the top three competitors in each of the tournament’s three divisions solve an oversize crossword on stage at the front of the tournament room, wearing noise-blocking headphones so that commentators can narrate the gameplay. The oldest and largest crossword puzzle tournament in the country and the subject of the 2006 documentary Wordplay, the ACPT was held in Stamford, CT, on April 3.Ĭompetitors in the ACPT solve puzzles during seven rounds of competition throughout the weekend and are scored by judges on their accuracy and speed. Shortz, the longtime crossword editor of the New York Times, founded the ACPT in 1978 and still directs the tournament each year. I would like to just read the lyrics because there’s so many clever rhymes.” “I was just blown away by the talent, blown away by the writing. “It was great,” Will Shortz told the News. In many ways, the ACPT is the ideal audience for the student-written musical, which revolves around a crossword competition game show and features a protagonist that co-book writer Will Wegner ’23 described as an “amalgamation of Alex Trebek and Will Shortz.” A few hours before cruciverbalist Tyler Hinman won his seventh American National Crossword Puzzle Tournament this Sunday, Yale students performed the first act of the musical Word Nerd on the same stage.
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