double duty

Rehearsing two shows full-out today and did the same thing yesterday.

I've done it before, back in 2002 I had four going at one time, but of course I was a much younger man and still had my strength and eyesight.

And I've got an overlap of three actors, so Dave, Paul, Eva and I are working Overlord all day, trudging up to the Atlantic at 4:30 and wrestling The Invitation until 10:00.

Find myself giving the same notes in both rehearsal halls, of course.

My directing book will be called One Hundred Ways to Say "Faster".

Truthfully, below and beneath the obvious speed-freak element, I'm struck lately by the sameness of the work I'm doing. Neither The Invitation or Captain Overlord's Folly are actually all that fast; that vocal urgency isn't as key to either as earlier Parks' plays or most of the C.J.Hopkins' stuff we've done. But ever since Fatboy, I've found a kind of clarity in thinking and speaking about what we're doing. I was talking with Madi Distefano last night, an actress and director and writer down in Philly I've known for years and this came up, this recognition that sometimes, through very little effort or intent on your own part, you find yourself working calmly and simply and with great confidence, every project making sense, every rehearsal building off of the last.

And then, next thing you know, you're back in the weeds, searching hopelessly for that lost ball.

Enjoy it while it lasts, smooth road is rare in this territory.

Most days are hacking through a jungle, but sometimes you raise the machete, give a whack and before you lies an open veldt and you can see for miles.

Ann gave me the veldt idea, blame her.