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Community Performance Inc.

December 02, 2007

Friday afternoon, RIchard and I were working on schedules, rehearsal notes, and finalizing where each scene was going to be when Alda dropped in to say hi. She was the one who picked us up from the airport this summer on our first visit. Before she left, she told a to-die-for funny story. I asked myself "Whyyyyyy!" Why didn't I hear this a couple of months ago when I was writing the script. This story is just too good. But now we've cast people in roles, we can take them out, we can't add another story- which would be the usual option for me-- but because this is a progressive theater piece, all of the different scenes need to each be between 5:00 and 5:20 seconds long. Adding this to any other scene would lengthen it too much.

After she tells the story, and I'm lamenting that it's not in a show, I realize we have one more hour left until rehearsals begin. How we're working it is that I'm rehearsing half of the scenes, Richard is rehearsing the other half at the same time, in order to get in enough rehearsal time to open on Thursday.

I get to one of my scenes, and it's the only one which isn't cast all the way- we have some empty roles. One of our actors, who's child was cast in this scene, tells us his wife and kids are home, they could be in it. I'm thinking "kids". Like, 10 and under kids. I say sure, call them. They arrived about 5 minutes later. 13 and 20 years old, and 8 year old Joseph who is already in the scene. His wife will be here in a little while, but I look at the scene I have, and the ages are not a fit for the family who walked in the door. This is also my least favorite scene. They don't fit the scene, which is already going to take some work to make it work. What to do...

Then I look at them and think, aha! The story I just heard a couple of hours ago-- if I were to turn it into a scene, it would need a mom, two mischievous teenagers (the 20 year old looked teen enough) and a little boy. I told them the story I had heard about an hour before, and they were laughing too. I asked if they could come back during the rehearsal slot for this scene tomorrow, and they agreed. And I asked them to look for the scene over email that night or the next morning.

I finished the rest of the rehearsals that night, had some dinner, and by the time I drove up the mountain it was very late. I woke up in the morning at 9:00, we had a rehearsal at 11:00, and the drive down the mountain is half an hour. So I've got an hour and a half tpo write the scene, get dressed, etc. We also have to move out today because they need the cabin we were living in for a conference up there. So I've also got this packing to do. Richard and Joe and Corey help me out by packing me up, all around me, while I sat there writing a scene and eating a piece of peanut butter toast. Type, type, edit edit, (delete, delete) type type. Viola, scene finished, emailed, we hop in the car, and arrive at 11:01 to our first scene rehearsal of the day. So, OK, i was a little ripe because I didn't get a show, but the work was ready! I think I remembered to change out of my fuzzy socks before throwing on my tennis shoes.

The family came in, having downloaded the scene, and we laughed our way through rehearsal. I love it when the universe hands me little treats like this.

   

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