OK -  so, in workshop with the Victory Theatre in Burbank for a reading of my play …AND THE TWO ROMEOS.   Haven’t heard the play in a year - it’s been very back burner  - so to get into it again…wow.   We rehearsed last weekend and then - after an insanely insightful conversation with the actors (Carri Sullen-Stacy,  Jeremy Kent Jackson, Jonathan Castile, Michael Matthys, Melina Bielefelt and director Tom Ormeny, producer Maria Govetti and dramaturg Mark Majarian)  I pulled the whole thing apart Monday.  Then it was holy crap time - this is the way I clean closets too, dump everything out and then wonder how the hell  I’ll ever get back in in the time allotted.   I killed a bunch of darlings - deconstructed, reconstructed - and after two more rehearsals the reading is tonight.  We’ll see.

It’s fascinating doing this without really having known the actors before (except Melina but we hadn’t directly worked together) and not having worked with Tom before.   There’s a bunch of testing the waters and then trying to understand what someone is really saying when they make a comment.  There’s always something beneath the surface that you have to decipher - once you (I) get over that initial  “no fucking way am I cutting that scene”  visceral reaction.

But it’s been lovely and challenging and I have to say - it makes me know all over again the all too rare joy of getting to do what I do.