Good News/Bad News

The problem with a project like this is that the deeper in you go, the more likely you are to have little disappointments. Sadly, the director I was so enthusiastic about, who had earlier agreed to do the show, is now beginning to have second thoughts about her ability to follow through with the commitment. I can’t say I’m surprised — she’s in another state, starting a new and fairly risky business, and the economy just collapsed in a dusty heap. Even before the financial picture became quite so scary, I was actually very pleasantly surprised when she agreed to do it in the first place, given the logistics of the thing. She hasn’t completely bowed out, and I’m hoping by the time she would really be needed here in NYC — which probably won’t be until the end of February — that things will have stabilized enough for her that she’ll be able to go ahead with it, but for right now I have to at least consider the possibility that I’ll be looking for a new director. She actually mentioned knowing someone who might be well-suited; we’ll have to see where that goes.

Meanwhile, on the brighter side, the way in which all of this came to light was that we were discussing the first reading! Which, as it looks now, will happen the Thursday after Election Day. I was hoping to do it before the end of October, but because of the scramble to find someone else to at least temporarily step in and direct, it just seemed like a little less pressure on everyone — actors, director and myself — to be flexible on the time. The stand-in (stand up!) guy directed a reading of my last straight play at Blue Coyote last year. A really nice young guy, bright, even-tempered and (and this is why I thought he might be a good fit for this show despite his not having any real background in musical theater), when he read Moonchild , he said that he liked it’s “sweetness.” Now, anyone who actually saw that show might not have associated “sweetness” with it, but the funny thing is, it TOTALLY IS SWEET! in places. I wrote it that way on purpose; unfortunately, in that particular production the sweetness didn’t come across, which is kind of understandable since it’s not exactly all right on the surface. But it is there, and he saw it, and that gives me hope. So anyway, fingers crossed, the script alone (no songs yet), will be seen by its first audience in about three weeks. Fingers crossed even tighter, I will have purchased a video camera by then, and since I just discovered that it is (apparently) pretty easy to upload video to this site, I'm kind of excited about the possibility of being able to start actually discussing the show here in some kind of meaningful way.