Well, dear readers, I am still operating on three hours of sleep. Three hours of sleep had a burst appendix and I have been operating, and quite successfully, too. Well, we’re off to a fine start, aren’t we? I shall endeavor to get a lot of sleep because I need a lot of sleep. I shall also try not to do much during the day, so that I can be fresh as a daisy for tonight’s rehearsal of the play. The first blocking night is always weird for me – I’m not one of these people who plans all the blocking in advance. I like to have the actors and just start – I stop, I start, I change, I adjust, and then gradually a style comes to me and then it’s easy. Sometimes that’s a bit unnerving for the actors, but it’s very organic for me, and it usually works best for the piece. So, we start at the beginning, which is, after all, a very good place to start. Yesterday, I arose at 4:50 in the morning, packed, and went down to wait for my shuttle, which was supposed to arrive between 5:15 and 5:30 – it arrived at 5:50, and I was none too happy about it. I did get to the airport in plenty of time, but then our flight was delayed by twenty minutes. The actual flight home was only forty-eight minutes long. I arrived back at the home environment around ten. I then had to pack up some CDs and get them shipped. I then picked up an advance copy of the new Special Edition of Chicago, which comes out in a couple of weeks. I did some banking, I did some lunching, and then I got home around four, turned on the TV and immediately fell asleep. Alas, I was awakened seventeen minutes later by some young’un knocking on my door trying to sell me something. I was too tired to do any buying. I then did a few other things and got ready to go to our first rehearsal – a read-through of the play.
I was very pleased with the read-through. I must say, the cast is going to be wonderful – everyone read well together, and they were already finding the laughs, and also finding the complexities of their characters. There were fumfers and some wrong choices, but overall the play read really well and I couldn’t have been happier. I have purposely not gone anywhere near the play for eight weeks, so I’d hear it with fresh ears, and the fresh ears were pleased with what they heard. Tammy is very interesting – during our readings, if she read with an actor who wasn’t interesting or right, she went right to their energy level and ended up being not interesting or right. Tonight, with actors who are very right for their roles, and very good actors, she just came alive and it was really fun to watch. The other good news was that even with just reading the stage directions for the ending of act one and act two, the play ran the length I wanted it to – about ninety-five to one hundred minutes. It’s always read faster, but last night, the actors took their time, found nuances even at this very early stage, and didn’t rush through anything. I think rehearsals are really going to be fun.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m operating on three hours of sleep and I don’t want to lose the patient.
All right, let’s just stop right here. Let’s just whip out our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s just whip out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s just dance the Hora or the Mexican Hat Dance, because today is a very special day – it is the birthday of our very own beloved dear reader Jane. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own beloved dear reader Jane. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN BELOVED DEAR READER JANE!!! We do adore dear reader Jane and we hope that her dear husband Keith will be making her day magical and warm and filled with love.
My goodness, that got gooey, didn’t it? That was just gooey as gooey gets. That made my teeth hurt, actually. But, we all adore our Jane and just want her day to be very special indeed, so gooey is the order of the day. Gooey and cake.
There are birthdays galore this month – in fact, we have another tomorrow, don’t we? I wonder if anyone is throwing a surprise party for tomorrow’s birthday? Don’t tell me.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep many hours, I must relax, I must pay a few bills, I must do a few errands, I must go hither and thither and perhaps even yon, and then I must rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like, and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions, and loads of lovely answers, shall we, whilst I cease to operate on three hours of sleep.