Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle persimmon. Does anyone still eat a persimmon? I, for one, have never had such a thing as a persimmon. First of all, I don’t like the sound of it. Apple sounds good. Orange sounds good. Peach sounds good. Grapes sounds good. Cherries sounds good. Persimmon sounds like a cross between a handbag and a mattress. I leave the persimmon to the folks who like kiwi fruit. Kiwi fruit makes me want to vomit on the ground. Why the HELL am I going on about unattractively named fruits? Actually I know several unattractively named fruits but that’s another story. I also know some unattractively named spuds and some unattractively named meat by-products. I was thinking that right about now it might be a good idea to actually write some notes.
Yesterday, I ate neither a persimmon or a kiwi or any other unattractively or attractively named fruit. It was just not a fruit kind of day. Neither a Persimmon – that’s the title of my next novel. In any case, yesterday was a perfectly okay day, in which I did things. One of the things I did was arise after a decent night’s beauty sleep. I was quite groggy when I got up, but had to have a telephonic call. I’d pretty much calmed down from the sick and twisted occurrence of the day before, so that was good. I answered e-mails and then I went and had a meatless Cobb salad with 1000-Island dressing, a bagel, and some tap, tap, tapioca pudding, all good. I called the mail place and was told no packages so I just came home.
Once home, I buckled down, Winsocki and wrote two sets of liner notes. One went off for proofing and one went to the designer. I would love to get both packages ready and approved by next week and since I’m behind, I’ll announce them together, which will be very helpful. That took most of the day, and then I moseyed on over to LACC for our five o’clock rehearsal. Kay Cole was back with us and so we began at the top of the show and ran all the group numbers as well as If I Had My Druthers, so she could see what I’d done in restaging the opening completely and in making adjustments to one other number, as well as see my staging on the ballet and Put ‘Em Back the Way They Wuz. She seemed to like everything I’d done, so that was good. The opening number really looks good, I think. She cleaned some stuff up on Jubilation T. Cornpone (all her, except for some of Marryin’ Sam and Sami’s stuff), then we did Rag Offin’ the Bush (ninety percent her) and she cleaned that up, too. She liked Druthers and she really seemed to like the ballet and the approach to it. I had her add one little thing for one of our males, and that helped one bit that wasn’t working for me. She really helped get Put ‘Em Back sharpened up – she made them drill it and really commit to what I’d done and by the end of it it was looking like it should. Then we spent some time on the act two finale – a hugely long and complicated sequence. Both she and I did tightening work and the final time we ran it everyone finally saw what it needs to be in terms of its pace and it played beautifully. She and I had a great time, and I hope the cast did, too. Barry wasn’t with us – he’s got a little bout of the flu and is resting – I didn’t want him around while he’s contagious.
After we finished, I stopped at Gelson’s and got four teriyaki drumettes, and I came home and ate them. They weren’t very good and I really shouldn’t eat anything from their deli that’s left that late in the evening. I cleaned up what I’d written earlier and that was that.
Today, I shall not eat a persimmon. But I will have something fun to eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then I have a meeting with the head of the LACC Foundation – mostly to chat about the Richard Sherman event, but there will be other business I want him to know about. After that, we have our rehearsal. We’ll be without Daisy Mae (she had a conflict only on this date and we knew about it up front) and possibly without Barry, so my intention is just to drill scenes and the big numbers, over and over again until they start becoming second nature to everyone. We’re still having way too many problems with lines and that really has to change as soon as possible. We’ll do detail work and I’m hoping we continue to have as much fun as we’ve been having. We’re in the home stretch now, and this is really the final few days where I’ll be able to run things and give detailed direction. Once we hit next week, it’s all run-throughs and our sitzprobe and then we’re in tech. I do think we’re in very good shape, though.
Tomorrow we have another rehearsal, Friday is our long day, and we are working for four hours on Saturday. Saturday night I’m attending the STAGE benefit, and I still haven’t decided if I’m going to an opening night on Sunday. I’ll also spend a bit of time with a friend whose coming into town.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have a meeting and 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 and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall not be eating a persimmon or any other unattractively named fruits.