Catching up

I don't feel like writing much tonight - but it's been ages since I wrote anything. For two days I was in Great Barrington at the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, working with actors and a director on a play I co-wrote called "Scrambled Eggs" (crazy title, thought up by Eric Bogosian, so you can't turn that down.)

It was very challenging. The night of the table read, Matt Penn, the director, said the ending isn't quite there yet, so just re-write. The actor who's playing the lead, a lovely woman named Amy Von Nostrand, came to my room at the inn and we talked through the play until midnight. And then the following day I sat at the computer and worked on a new ending. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting closer. One of the best things about theater is that the play can keep on evolving.

Then I raced home last night in time to be here today for the tech rehearsal of my solo show and I got to see my dear friend, Jake Lipman's show tonight too. "Up a River and Down the Aisle." She was fantastic.

Tomorrow I go back up to Great Barrington (which is quite gorgeous, by the way) for the reading. I am prepared for a talk back afterward which will probably be difficult - it usually is. People like to put in their two cents and it's not always flattering. But I feel that I have to be there, not only because I have a chance to see the play in front of an audience, but because I really like the actors and want to be there to support them. I know we'll get laughs and I hope it works as a staged reading. I cringe a lot at things I would like to completely re-write, but at this point, I don't have the chance.

Zoe's flying in tonight from San Francisco and we will probably just miss each other tomorrow morning as I race to Grand Central. I have to say this is very very stressful, but in a good way. It's amazing that it's all happening in one week.