Well, dear readers, I may as well just start cutting and pasting the first sentence of these here notes to say it’s late and I’m tired and therefore I must post these here notes in a hurry, as that seems to be the mantra these days (or nights). Did you know that mantra spelled backwards in artnam? Do you want to know an interesting factoid? Even though every new edition of the notes begins with “Well, dear readers” I have never cut and pasted it in and have always typed it anew. Conversely, I have never cut and pasted the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday last paragraph stuff that’s specific to those days and is always the same. After this many years I know it all by heart and it’s always typed anew, which is better than typing it aold.
Yesterday, I did manage to get nine hours of blessed sleep, after which I got up and did my usual morning stuff – answered e-mails, had some telephonic conversations and began an attempt at a show order. Then I had a patty melt with no fries or onion rings, after which I picked up a package. Then I came home, placed the book order, which should arrive within ten days, finished a first pass at a show order, which isn’t right yet, so I have to move stuff around. Then I spent an hour writing up some information for something that will hopefully be of interest to the fans of our little label that could known as Kritzerland. After that it was time for the Sami rehearsal.
Things are progressing nicely, but we still have work to do to get the monologues sounding more natural and having them be more fun – they are VERY wordy and Sami’s still glued to the page, so interpretation is just difficult when you’re concentrating on reading words and doing the beats and reading and making sense of the notes she’s written on her pages. But when she relaxes or has fun, then everything comes to life. She’s singing the songs wonderfully, so that part is fine. She couldn’t have a better musical director than Alby Potts and he’s an integral part of the show and she’ll be able to have fun with that once she’s off book. After we ran everything, we had to work out a couple of musical things, and then I went back to one of the monologues because it’s different than the others and we’re setting up a song about the character’s grandpa, who died when she was five. I had her read it again, and it just didn’t sound right to my ears. I had her try it a couple of different ways – it got a little better but it just wasn’t right. She finally said, “Read me a couple of the lines so I hear how you want it.” I did, and I couldn’t speak them so they worked and I knew instantly I, rather than she, was the problem. The writing just wasn’t what it needed to be – I was trying to put a kind of light humor in it and it was making everything awkward, which is why it was sticking in her throat. We talked about it, and I told her the story of how my grandpa died when I was seven and I just realized that that’s what I needed to write – that story. So, that was a good thing. Otherwise, I really think we’ve got something here – I’ve told her I will endlessly nitpick things in the writing until I’m completely happy, so she has to be ready for that. We’re using just a few show and tell items for the private reading, and when she was doing the monologue about common core math and demonstrating old vs. new, seeing it written out along with the pretty funny dialogue had us all laughing.
Then we went to dinner. I just had a cup of soup, and Sami and her mom split some matzo ball soup. Then I came back home. It was too late to finish watching Blood and Black Lace so I just played on the computer and the Internet until the Internet went down for a little while. I had a telephonic conversation and that was about it.
Today, I’ll hopefully arise after another good night’s beauty sleep, then I have several things I must attend to, including getting the show order right and starting the commentary, I’ll eat something light but amusing, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, I’ll set the book signing for mid-May, and then we have a Sami rehearsal. Since Alby isn’t with us again until the day of the reading, we’ll mostly be working the monologues, stopping and starting, and then we’ll run a few of the songs. Then we’ll grab a bite and our next rehearsal is on Saturday.
Tomorrow, I have a lot of catch-up stuff to do, a work session with John Boswell and then I’m either seeing Mary Poppins or I’m not – haven’t had confirmation yet. Saturday and Sunday are Sami rehearsals, and then Monday is the first Kritzerland rehearsal followed by our private reading.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, get the show order right, write, rehearse, and have a little snack after. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite songs of your favorite singer/songwriters of the late 1960s to the late 1970s? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shan’t cut and paste any previous dreams – I shall dream anew.