"This is a dream come true," I thought to myself, as streams of canned silly string exploded at me from seemingly every direction. Multi-colored gummy gunk caked me as the pungent smell of aerosol infested my nose – and I just couldn’t stop laughing. (An amateur move; the taste of spray can just finds its way into your mouth then, too.)

Growing up in the ’90s, I spent all too many days in front of the television, watching old Nickelodeon game shows hoping to someday be one of those lucky kids sliding around in green slime, digging around in giant PB&J sandwiches and failing to put together a simple three-piece puzzle – all in the name of winning some Ring Pops or a pair of BK Ratch Tech sneakers.

A few decades later, that fantasy finally became reality while standing in the middle of a grade school gymnasium, a happy volunteer during a practice run-through of its latest brilliantly bonkers original play, the "Double Dare"-inspired "Winnerz Take All," which premiered Wednesday evening at Highland Community School with another show set for Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

"I certainly grew up on those Nickelodeon game shows," recalled Barry Weber, performing arts director at Highland. "We all loved ‘Double Dare’ and I especially loved ‘Hidden Temple.’ I loved ‘Video Power’ and all the video game ones where you had the cool kid on the skateboard high-fiving everybody. It just seemed like another fun thing to try!"

Coming off high-concept original ideas like "a David Lynch detective story for kids" and "Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Dead Man’ but starring grade schoolers," adapting old Nickelodeon game shows already intended for children into an original play almost seems safe by the standards set by Weber and the MPS-chartered Montessori school. Yet in a program defined by creating some of the most interesting theater in the city – no, seriously – "Winnerz Take All" is somehow its most challenging and daring production yet.

The plot of the short show follows four friendly teams regularly battling it out on a bright and messy televised game show in contests of wit and wanton disregard for hygiene, from trivia to trampling through a splatter-inducing obstacle course. But after suffering several losses in a row to the lowly blue and gray teams, the once-dominant Gold Team decides to change the rules to its advantage with the help of the Red Team’s conflicted but undeterred compliance. Two plus two becomes five, the Moira Quirk-ian refs help rig the results and the once-chipper Jock Jam intro music devolves into a diseased droning sound – all to the glee of the show’s ratings-obsessed execs.

So to say "Winnerz Take All" is inspired by retro Nickelodeon ends up being too simple. It’s more like "Double Dare" meets "Cabaret" meets "Network." Plus a whole lot of silly string.

"In my adult years, I’ve always loved ‘Cabaret,’ so I wanted to do a kids version of that in these modern times," Weber explained. "I loved how this wonderful thing gradually became more menacing and intense, reflecting everything that was happening. So I wanted to try out a kids version of that, where this show that starts as this fun time morphs."

That’s all before the show’s grand social experiment gets rolling. The story rests in the hands of the audience, split into the four teams and interacting with the player performers, participating in the challenges and, by the end, adjusting the conclusion by voting for or against the game-bending rule changes. Weber first tried out this interactive style of show last year for Highland’s video game/RPG-inspired production and discovered the crowd at odds with their rivals on the opposite side of the stage, creating an engaging conversation between the actors, the audience and everyone’s own sense of morality and teamwork.

"I thought we really hit something last year that was successful, where I realized that was a void that I wanted us to fill – not just as children’s theater, but just in general," Weber said. "Some teams in here will skew the game in their favor, and I don’t know how the audience will react to that. Maybe they’ll be like, ‘Hey, come on, let’s help the other teams,’ or will they go, ‘Yeah, we’re winning!’ – even though it’s ridiculous."

One doesn’t need to be glued to their Twitter newsfeed to see the real-world parallel of a gold-obsessed team set on their side winning above all else, bending the rules and reality itself to help further its agenda – all enabled by a fickle ratings-thirsty media machine and others willing to sell their souls in the name of at least not being on the bottom. Weber’s show doesn’t seek to villainize anyone or call any beliefs out, but political times create political art – with the director pointing to the famous Howard Zinn quote, "You can’t be neutral on a moving train."

"As a school, we are political – whether we want to be or not," he explained. "If we do a play like this, it’s being political. If we just did something more traditional, that would be its own political statement.

"I don’t ever want to ever be calling out certain people by name, but I feel like in our lifetimes, there’s been an obsession with winning. I don’t know if it’s an American thing or if it’s just a human thing. I wanted to explore not only the idea of what we’re willing to do to win but what we’re willing to excuse from others to win. And I think that’s something that, if I was a kid, I’d be able to understand a lot more through this than being lectured to about something else."

In case the toilet paper mummy contests and "Global Guts"-style games weren’t evidence enough, though, the primary function of all of Highland’s shows is fun. As with every year, Weber’s goal isn’t to soapbox but to supply his students with interesting and unique shows rather than the same dusty productions with little relevance to their lives today and even fewer roles of note for all of the kids wanting to participate. Judging by the sound of kids running through lines and tech cues, eagerly wanting to talk to me about their roles and the show’s crazy elements – all while sitting in school on an bleary weekend morning – "Winnerz Take All" would appear to be another winner.

Sure, I might just be saying that because I finally got to experience something like competing on a Marc Summers-hosted Nickelodeon game show. But while I and many parents and adults in attendance reminisce about the nostalgia of the past, the students are getting lessons and experiences for the future – all while laughing and clapping in the present.