Music, continued and then some

Back to rehearsal last night. I was able to borrow a boom box from Carlo at Theaterlab, our rehearsal space, so Wallace could hear the music . . . he didn't exactly roll on the floor ecstatic with it, but he took the disc home to acclimate. I mean, I don't know what his experience is with down and dirty blues, but it might take a listen or two for him to hear what I heard in the music ... plus, the boom box wasn't exactly high tech, so if he hears it on a better system it might help as well. On the trip home I started having second thoughts myself. Maybe Dark Was the Night is too dirge like for the opening! So then I thought of John Hartford, who I always loved and saw perform many times, and his music is light hearted and beautiful . . . might be just the thing we need for the top of the show. So that is today's job.

We had a decent rehearsal last night. I felt like I was crawling through molasses half the time, but worked through it. I think we're both just ready to get this up and running already! I know I am. Chomping at the bit! Having said that, we are still finding things. It's quite an exploration. Nobody ever said this would be easy . . . and if they did . . . they lied! Sure it comes naturally to me, the rhythms of speech and all that, and sure some of it is based on my experience, but that's all surface stuff. What lies underneath the surface is what we're finding and it's bottomless; there always seems to be new colors to find and new relationships to discover. I'm learning a lot. About directing too. Wallace, in his gentle, loving way, is always pushing for more . . . pushing to break me out of my bad habits and taking the easiest route. It's all adding up to something . . . I guess we'll find out what on the 29th!

I got an email this morning from the festival about tech time. Seems the earlier show on our night is 'running over' and they asked if they could have fifteen minutes of our tech time. Though it is my default mode to be Mr. Niceguy, I declined. As I pointed out: I cut Old Hickory to forty minutes to accommodate the festival, let this other show find their own solutions. I guess they figure, and rightly so, it doesn't hurt to ask, but I figure, rightly so, that I don't have to roll over and play dead just cause they ask. In a way it's too bad, because I did really like the people from EAT when I met them the other night, but if they hold anyone's feet to the fire it should be the other piece. And if we run over on the night of the show, I guess it isn't the end of the world if we have a slightly shorter talk back session.