so my trip to the Czech Republic is closing in on me VERY FAST. We are in rehearsals for the operetta we'll be doing there and the memorization is freaking me out. I can't hurry it along, I know that, but it's hard to be patient with myself and not stress. It will all get tucked away in my head when it's good and ready and it will all come out of my head when it's good and ready. In the meantime, I'm going to carry my book around in rehearsals and if the other's don't like it then too bad. I need to stop stressing about it. Nothing is going to get accomplished by it. I just need to get over it.

We're in the midst of auditions for Title of Show. I think we have some options for guys and girls. I have never really been on this side of the table and I worry that I will upset my friends if I don't cast them. James goes through this all the time and I now know what it feels like up close and personal. I will say that I'm very happy that we have options as far as casting goes. We weren't sure going into the auditions how the chips would fall. I'm happy to say that I think we're going to have a wonderful cast regardless of who's in it, it's going to be great fun!

This is the first "show" I've directed. I've done the Crested Butte shows but those were musical reviews. This is my first "book" show. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with it yet. For me it's a matter of just studying the script and seeing where my creative juices send me. I don't want to copy the broadway production but certain elements were so brilliant that I can't imagine not incorporating some version of them into our show. We're definitely going to do a series of projections for Monkeys and Playbills. I think we can use powerpoint, easy. My dear, funny friend Marianne Galloway has a collection of playbills numbering into the thousands that her grandparents bequeathed to her. She will let me borrow them so we can scan them and use the images for the projection sequence. YAY!!!!

There are several things I could rant about but it's late as I'm writing this and I want to go to bed. I'll start making a list and then I can address each point.

Just as a teaser, some of them are:

"What's up with girly gay men on stage, especially in Dallas?"
"The lack of customer service at any Wendy's drive thru."
"University music programs in general."
"the classical music 'business' and the disfunctional people who work within it. (I think I have to include myself in that group.)" "Am I the only one who didn't like both Next to Normal and Spring Awakening?"