June 30, 2010. Hi there. Shouldn’t be writing this as I am swimming in work, but I feel oh-let’s-call-it compelled. Draft three of Wake-Walking is trudging along (I’m more excited about it than that sounds), but I’m finding that the little changes I have made to the introductory scenes are having sort of a butterfly effect on the rest of the play. This is great news in the sense that it means that the play is integral and not episodic, but it is daunting news in the sense that the revision is turning into a full rewrite. Oh well. Surprises are in store for me, I guess.
I watched a brilliant documentary on Frank Loesser last night on TCM in honor of his 100th birthday. Loesser was the composer behind some really terrific musicals (most notably Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), and was a one-man theatrical army. The guy wrote book, music, and lyrics for tons of plays, was an excellent businessman, producer, and even publisher of theatrical music. I have always admired these personalities (Stephen Sondheim is another, although much less of a difficult bastard than Loesser) – the kinds of folks who can navigate several different aspects of an art, or even several different discrete art forms, with great success. This is the kind of work ethic I aim for, though most days I feel like a dilettante.
Speaking of dilettantism, I’m off to rehearsal for The Complete History of America (abridged), a show in which I for whatever reason get harnessed into various things, such as:
the accordion:
Then it’s back home to do grad school reading and continue work on the new full-length (The Immersibles) and the new musical (Silent Pictures) so I can pretend that I am Frank Loesser, albeit a lesser Loesser. And lest there be any doubt about his affections … Lincoln says hi.
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