Well, dear readers, it’s after midnight and these here notes should already be posted and yet they are not posted because they’re not even written yet, except for this Pulitzer Prize-winning opening salvo (ovlas, spelled backwards). Even though I took a Claritin-D at one and it should last twenty-four hours, the dog is wreaking havoc with my allergies. The pill’s definitely helping, but still I have shortness of breath, occasionally itchy eyes, and because of the shortness of breath, longness of coughing. So, let’s just dive right in and get to the rest of the look back for 2023. I can’t remember exactly where I left off, but probably with the writing of Kritzer World. I directed a little ten-minute play by Doug Haverty – that didn’t take much time at all and out of all the short plays (eight total), I felt his worked best and I had wonderful actors to work with. Then we cast 70, Girls, 70. While I could and maybe will write a whole book about the chaos that ensued, suffice it to say, losing five actors, dealing with lots of memory issues, way too many conflicts, and the constantly going backwards rather than forwards due to always having to put in the new actors meant that I never had the two weeks of run-throughs that I want and need and that everyone else needs. The night before our one and only preview, I actually said to Doug, “We can’t open this thing or if we have to can I take my name off it?” That’s how bad it was. And then somehow at the preview we got that huge laugh on the first line and it just energized everyone and though there was a ton of fumfering and reaching for lines, the audience loved it. That opening weekend was glorious – yes, too rough for my taste, but the show clearly worked for the first time ever and the word of mouth was fantastic. And after building up that head of steam we didn’t play the second week because our leading lady couldn’t do weeks two and five. Week two is critical to build up word of mouth, but thankfully we had that from the get-go so weeks three and four were pretty full houses and the show got tighter and tighter. The fumfering was still there and may well be there still occasionally, but the audiences were just having such a good time that they forgave all that. I’ll go into more detail about what I did to the show to make it work, but my two proudest things with this show were writing an opening line that gets a huge laugh – I can’t actually think of any show where the first line of dialogue gets a huge laugh. Audiences need time to acclimate themselves to the show, but this line was just so right and it set the tone for all that followed. Very proud of that. And the other thing, the song Boom Ditty Boom is five pages of the same lyric over and over again without one word of stage direction in the script that said what the point of it was or what was supposed to be happening. Not one WORD. I had an idea of what I felt should be happening, and then one night I just dove into it and staged it in two hours, and it was hilarious right out of the gate and once everyone got the structure in their heads and bodies, it was like watching a Blake Edwards movie onstage. It gets a great reaction at every performance. But getting there was not so much fun. And during all of it, David Wechter and I began writing another screenplay and we’re now a third of the way through and we’ll probably finish it in early January. And finally, I decided on what book 25 will be. I wanted it to be something I haven’t really done before and it’s an idea I had at the same time as Preview Harvey and Muse Margaret really liked it, just not as much as Preview Harvey. I can only say it will be non-fiction. And that was pretty much it for the year. Many struggles throughout that made things difficult, but I’m very proud of the two books and all the other creative endeavors of 2023.
Earlier last evening, I saw the reading of a new play – very interesting subject matter, based on true events – some very good scenes but it needs a little TLC to get where it needs to go, as all new plays do. I had a little Taco Bell for my evening snack.
Yesterday, I got eight hours of sleep, took Sophie the Dog out for her constitutional and she did her two sets of businesses, and then we came back home and I gave her her morning meal, which she scarfed down quickly. Then I got ready, gave her a chewy treat, and I moseyed on over to Bea-Bea’s to join Robert Yacko, who bought me a nice belated birthday meal. That was fun and we caught up. After that, I went to a nearby CVS to get the twenty-four-hour Claritin-D, came home, took one, and then answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, took Sophie for another outside visit, gave her her second meal, and then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a couple of small packages, then went to the theater and here we are.
Today, I’ll probably be up by ten or ten-thirty, we’ll go for our walk, then she’ll have her early meal, I’ll do some work on the computer, have some telephonic conversations, eat something, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same and then we have our brush-up rehearsal. Friday, we resume performances, and it looks like the entire weekend will be sold out. Then on Sunday, we close our joyous show and there’ll be a little cast party after in the green room and then they strike the set – which will be one of the easiest strikes ever.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example be up by ten or so, take the dog out for her walk and give her meal one, do some work on the computer, have telephonic conversations, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. 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, happy to have had That Was the Year that Was, Part Two.