Six weeks...

...until OLIVER! opens at Oster Regent. We just finished casting. I am assistant directing.

I have already learned a lot.

1. With auditions--be sure to write down notes--IN DETAIL--after each night of auditioning. Otherwise, you are going to come back even a day later and not remember who you saw or what the reason you wrote 'BOOBS' next to someone's name.

2. Save the drama for the stage.

We had our first production meeting tonight and it went very well. I discovered that I am going to be doing a lot of research (including how to teach someone different English accents, which should be fun!) and then about the time frame of the play and what was going on in the world then, and about the different classes then and how the treatment of each class by one another might color a character's perspective.

I am also going to be blocking a scene.

I was, admittedly, surprised by this. Greg, the director, even said that he might want me to run a few rehearsals too. I won't lie, I am slightly terrified at this prospect. I just need to get more confidence, because even if I do it wrong, I'm still learning and Greg must have some faith in me, otherwise he wouldn't have said yes to me assisting him. Also, I did ask to assist to learn. Ergo...

AND more good news! I am going back to Reston Community Players in Reston, Virginia, for my second reading of A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. This is good news, indeed. I am also going to be flying into Philadelphia to visit Nick during that time instead of going to D.C. I miss my long lost twin brother! It will be a good time, and I hope that the edits are enjoyed by the actors and directors and that I get good feedback again from them.

I did a lot of rewrites on the play, but I fear the problem that might keep it from going further in the development process is that I still didn't entirely address the issues with the feline characters. It was observed before that the feline characters might be played in numerous ways, and that maybe there needs to be more description with how the stage directions should be handled. I am torn, because I kind of believe that the stage directions are kind of there as a guideline to get the director started. I try to not put so many in the final draft of the play, knowing, as a director myself, that stage directions will often get ignored (and there are many arguments for and against this, none of which I care to go into here). The point is, I wrote what I saw in my head, and while some of that might be impossible to do exactly as they are written, I did write a note in the beginning stating that creativity is encouraged with the feline characters. I am afraid it might not be enough. Maybe i do need more stage directions. I will wait until May to find out what they think.

So things are looking up. I'm also working on a play called CHOCOLATE CAKE and another play about bees. Sometimes you just have to plow through to make it through.

Whoa Time Flies

I have been meaning to write here. Honest. It's just hard to keep my personal life separate from my writing life, and sometimes I have to just take a few months and really kind of just not be on here. Life happens. Honestly, nothing terrible, just some big life changes coming up.

When one thinks to start a family, it does things to oneself. Or me. Yeah, me. The husband and I are going to start trying to have children this summer. This is a HUGE thing in general, and a huge thing for my writing. Lately, I have been wondering why I write what I do. I can't get anyone to do my work and I am languishing. It's hard to see my lovely friends getting places I wish I could. If I could just go to grad school, I could get there--but then again, there's no thinking that I will get there any faster with grad school--I might just get there with a bigger debt hanging on my back.

I am just struggling with my work, and feeling like a failure isn't helping much. I suffer from depression and while I am medicated, it doesn't erase my emotions. It makes them manageable. And sometimes they aren't manageable.

So when I'm blocked, it gets worse because I wonder why I even write. It's not like my work has any greater meaning than what it is. I'm not writing politically charged pieces that make people thing. I don't write about things that matter in the end. Sometimes my work is just fluff, and I'm fine with that. I just wish I could get something done somewhere!

It's just tough sometimes.