More than a dozen children volunteered Saturday for a job that will require them to perform in an area with bonfires, electrical wires, smoke bombs, strobe lights and hundreds of pounds of fireworks.

These brave boys and girls are the Glooms, who, cloaked in white sheets, will scurry around Zozobra shortly before the 49-foot, fireworks-stuffed marionette is ritually burned on Sept. 9 at Fort Marcy Ballpark. Saturday morning was the "audition" for the Glooms held on the hill overlooking Fort Marcy, right at the base of the pole where Old Man Gloom will come alive the night before Fiesta.

"How many of you are looking forward to 30,000 people screaming at you like rock stars?" asked Ray Valdez, who has produced the Zozobra spectacle for 16 years. All hands instantly rose.

Jonathan Manzanares, a student at Piñon Elementary School who is about to turn 9, said he wants to be a Gloom because "it looks like fun."

Marissa Griego, 10, said she's wanted to be a Gloom "since I was 2." Her classmate at Tesuque Elementary School, Brianna Duran, 10, already is a veteran, having been a Gloom last year. She confirmed that it's a fun experience.

The Glooms, sometimes called "Gloomies," are a longtime Zozobra tradition. Valdez said it goes back to 1926, a couple of years after artist Will Shuster created the monster and his fiery execution.

Children ages 9-14 are eligible to become Glooms.

After going through some basic Gloom moves — moving your arms like windmills, pirouetting — it was established that all the kids who showed up had passed the audition. A few more are expected to be added by the first rehearsal next Saturday, Valdez said.

He then spoke to them and their parents about logistics, stressing safety. He told them to be sure that their costumes don't go much lower than shin level. And do not run when wearing your costume, Valdez said. This is important because several years ago, a girl tripped on her sheet and broke her collarbone.

Although this was the most serious Gloom-related accident, at least in recent decades, the experience was apparently not that traumatic. The "collarbone girl," as Alex Van Camp was known, kept coming back and eventually danced at the burning as The Gloom Queen, Valdez told a reporter.

Tickets for Will Shuster's Zozobra are $10 in advance and available only at the Lensic Performing Arts Center's ticket office — except for Labor Day weekend, when the Downtown Kiwanis Club, which is responsible for the event, will have a booth on the Plaza in front of First National Bank of Santa Fe. On the day of the event, tickets will only be sold at the gates for $15.

For more information — and some great photos and Zozobra history — check out www.zozobra.com.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.