Never Been Happier To Be Wrong

Hi there! Been a while, I know. But there have been doings! Of things. And admittedly they've been few and far between, but they are about to become manier and closer together, and here is the gist of them: In short, I decided earlier this year to just give up on what had become an increasingly quixotic attempt to find the right composer for this project, and just go ahead and use the music I had written myself. This, unfortunately, is a lot easier said than done. The reasons why are both complicated and stupid, but more than anything else they have to do with the fact that I am apparently psychologically incapable of learning to play a musical instrument. Weirdly, I have a decent grasp of theory, and can both compose and transcribe quite well; the problem is that the transcription part takes me for-freaking-ever, mainly because of the whole not playing an instrument thing. So I came up with this too-complicated-to-go-into-right now plan to find someone I could both hire AND collaborate with, to work with me on the few parts of the score that weren't done yet, and also to flesh out and arrange the parts that were. Now this is the kind of thing where, God knows, there's just no way of predicting how it's going to work out, and at the time, I posted the following on Facebook:

Projected breakdown of responses to my recent craigslist post (per 100 replies):
35 emails informing me that I may have already won a prize!
30 declarations of outraged indignation that I “expect” them to do the proposed work for such a pittance (pro tip: you’re a complete stranger on the internet. I have no idea who you are. I don’t “expect” you to do anything)
20 headshots/resumes from “actors” who freely admit they have no clue how to do the thing I need done, but who couldn’t help noticing that it had something to do with a new play, which they’d just love to be in when the time comes!
10 demonstrations of deluded nutcasery in which the respondent’s entire CV consists of the words: “I’ll do it. Can I get the money now?”
3 well-meaning inquiries from earnest but utterly inexperienced newbies who claim to “know they probably aren’t qualified” but hope to be considered anyway!
2 worthwhile replies from educated, skilled people who will blow me away with their competence and know-how, who at the last minute will decide they just don’t have time to do this right now.

And, well -- that is not what happened at all. What did happen was an overwhelming response from nearly a hundred genuinely qualified and talented people. In fact, there were so many that in order to thin the list down to a manageable number, I actually had to rule out a lot of the applicants on the basis of some pretty arbitrary criteria. I mean, not "arbitrary," but certainly not based on talent or ability. So, for instance, they had to be based in the 5-borough area. I know this is the electronic age, and people can do amazing things long-distance, but for this project I really need to be in the same room with the person. Maybe s/he doesn't need to be, but I do. So, those people from DC and Boston and the Adirondacks kind of got cycled out pretty early on, to say nothing of the ones from Japan and Australia and the Netherlands.
And I decided not to interview anyone who didn't specifically mention being a pianist. Because again, no disrespect to the guy whose main instrument was the oboe (although he's also skilled on the French horn), but I actually need to be able to hear what this is going to sound like when it's done. I mean, I need to hear what it sounds like now -- meaning, I need to be able to know that all my notation is correct, and the chord progressions work. I can't hear harmonics on a solo wind instrument.
And the people who -- okay, can I just say something about this? If you're replying to an ad for a job you want to be considered for (even if it's not a "real" job), do you think it's a good idea to open your cover letter with the words "I might be willing to consider doing this?" I really don't like to seem unreasonable, but there's a level of enthusiasm I'm looking for, here. It's an artistic collaboration! And the guy who opened with "Wow! This sounds really interesting!" may have been brown-nosing, but I want to talk to him.
Then there was the guy who expressed interest, but had some questions for me. Each and every one of which was answered in the text of the original post.
You get the idea. And even at that, it was hard, but I finally narrowed the field to about a dozen. With luck, by the end of next week, I will have someone officially on board. You cannot imagine how much I'm looking forward to finally getting this project back on its feet.
More as it develops.