Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, taking another quick break from tonight’s writing to do more writing, the writing of these here notes, which I am writing, in case you haven’t noticed. So, let’s just get to yesterday, shall we? I got about seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, showered, made a bank transfer from account to account, then moseyed on over to the theater. We began at noon, finishing the final fifteen minutes of act two, took a short break, and then did a run-through. Act one went pretty smoothly but was low energy. It ran fifty minutes, which is pretty much what I’d like it to run. I made several mental notes about little acting things and staging things. Then we did act two, which had a lot of line calls and was too lax, especially in the final courtroom sequence – it ran fifty-five minutes, and I want to lose ten of those for sure. I spoke privately with a few actors, blocked the curtain call, and then we started at the top of act one and stopped and started – adjusting more staging, deciding that one scene had to be moved to a whole different part of the stage and which will require a new set-up line, one of two we now need our author to write. We got halfway through the act and if everyone remembers everything it all should look and run smoother. We wrapped at five o’clock and I felt it was a productive day. After the rehearsal, Lloyd Pedersen and I dined at the Coral Café. I’d never had a burger there besides the patty melt, so I got a bacon cheeseburger – it was pretty good but not anything I need to have again. Lloyd got a big bowl of corn chowder, and we got the nachos supreme, which I haven’t had in at least six years – Doug and I used to love getting those and sharing them with the table. They seemed a bit different, though – I seem to remember both guacamole and sour cream, which were not present, but I suppose I could be thinking of some other jernt. Anyway, I ate a some of that, but most of it went to Lloyd and he took the large amount that was left home with him to snack on. After that, I came right home, took pill two, caught up on e-mails and then began futzing and finessing. That took about forty minutes, and then I wrote three new pages. I’m in a section now that has no dialogue, so filling a page with nothing but descriptive prose takes longer than if you’re filling it with dialogue, especially if the dialogue isn’t verbose. I needed a short break, so I sat on my couch like so much fish and what do you think happened? Correct! Out like a light until about nine-thirty. My hand was misbehaving a bit – not terrible like the other day, but I just waited it out, and then wrote three more pages, which were fun to write, actually. And then it was time to write these here notes. I’ll try to do another two or three before I hit the road to dreamland.

Today, I’ll be up by ten or ten-thirty and out the door by eleven-fifteen. At 11:45 we will try the scene that’s moving to a different part of the stage and see how it feels. I suspect it will work much better because we’ll be much closer to the front of the stage. If it works, then we’ll need our new line into it plus a sign to hang and light up. At noon, we do our designer run-through, mostly for the lighting guy, who really has his work cut out for him. After that, our sound guy will mic the actors, and he’ll play with levels and stuff while we pick up halfway through act one and continue our detail work. We’ll definitely get all the way through act two, then the actors will have Monday to cement all those little changes. I think I’ll come right home after rehearsal, futz and finesse, eat dinner, and write as many new pages as I can. I really would like to send Muse Margaret pages by Wednesday or Thursday and hopefully by then I’ll be up to or close to 100 pages. I’ll almost be to page forty if I do get three more done tonight.

Tomorrow is our off day, and I have a lot to do, but I should also be able to find some ME time besides writing and doing other stuff. Tuesday, we’re back and doing run-throughs every night. Friday is our dry tech and I’ll have some bodies there for lighting purposes. Then Friday night we’ll do a run with a light-over. Saturday is our long day, starting at ten with a cue to cue, and then doing a full-out run-through with tech, mics, tracks, everything. After that, we can quickly run any problem cues. Sunday we’ll have two run-throughs with costumes and all tech. Monday we’re off, Tuesday is an invited dress, Wednesday and Thursday are previews, and then – we open on Friday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or ten-thirty and out the door by eleven-fifteen, run the change of location scene and make sure it works the way it needs, to, do a designer run, get actors in mics, and then continue the act one detail work and work through all of act two, come home, eat, futz and finesse, write new pages and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be adjusting and cleaning the show constantly.