I decided to change the setting of the living room set for Sarah’s flashback. When I handwrote the first draft, I said this set was similar to Charlie’s living room set, but I think if I keep it identical, then I could make it seem like this is Sarah replaying the moment inside her head. That way, her vision of Scott, whether she wants to remember what he looks like or just wants to keep his face a mystery, her physical memory of him is hers and only hers. Besides, the audience will know where Scott is as long as the spotlight is on him while they’re sitting down and the audience follows Sarah’s gaze while he’s moving around.
What I’m still wondering is how this would play out onstage. Not the scene, but the transitioning of Sarah’s pregnant belly between these scenes. Not so much before the scene since it’s the act break, but what about after? At this point, she is eight months pregnant so she’s about to pop any day now. The way I pictured it when I thought of this flashback scene was exactly like on a TV screen and onstage, it would only be a difference in lighting, but that doesn’t work if Sarah’s belly is already gigantic.
Obviously, Sarah would have to end up offstage, but now that I remember, Sarah (and originally, Scott) ends up offstage because they end up in another room (a bedroom) to do the deed. I guess that’s the point where the actress who plays Sarah will quickly put on the pregnancy padding and she can get back onstage when Charlie calls from the living room. Her stalling backstage could also mean she’s hesitant after the whole realization. That, and her weight would also be a factor to her taking so much time getting to Charlie’s living room. That way, Sarah’s actress can still take her time putting the padding back on underneath her clothes.
Now that I think about that transition, when Charlie calls her over, maybe he can call her names sort of the way she did in the final directing scene. I think that would provide a good update on their status as two roommates. I’m going for a sibling-like atmosphere between the two. And I think Hunter helps support the sibling element. The family environment is there since Hunter entered the picture.

I came up with another idea for Sarah’s flashback scene. There’s been much deliberation about Scott’s role in the performance. Ed told me himself that the show seemed to work better taking Scott out. Then, in revisions, I put him back into the script for the scene after the act break: Sarah’s flashback. That’s when I thought about casting and how Scott would only have one minor role in the show.
During my walk a couple days ago, I thought, what if the flashback still happens where it is, but Scott isn’t physically there? She just speaks this huge monologue, seemingly talking to someone else. That way, the audience still has their visual of what Scott looks like, whether he’s the villain or just a guy who makes mistakes.
I’m picturing this idea in my mind: the audience may wonder, Why is she talking to herself? Where did her pregnant belly go? Is she actually talking to someone? If so, whom?
I think this is a good idea because there was a one-act play that was similar to the style of this play. It’s called Chairs and there are two main characters and one guest, who comes at the very end. Around 90% of the play is this elderly married couple and more and more “imaginary guests” gradually enter. (The idea was they had to bring in more chairs in order to seat everyone. They seemed to only be talking to themselves and when I saw it, I kept thinking, Are they just so old they’re seeing things? I think it’d be fun having the audience ask those kinds of questions right after intermission.
Now that I think about it, what questions stick with the audience during intermission? This is right after Sarah realizes she was technically raped, even though she doesn’t want to say it out loud. In fact, this whole time, has she known inside that she was raped, just in denial? She just refuses to admit it because she refuses to think about what actually happened to her? Yep, that’s one major question the audience ponders upon during intermission: How hasn’t she known all along what happened to her?
What else could the audience be wondering up to the point where this flashback takes place? Right now, we know that Hunter has changed because of juvie. A question that might be answered is, what happened to him that made him change? For now, Hunter’s explanation for what happened to him is bad food and being hit on by one of his bunkmates. As much as it sucks being in that kind of position, I’m not sure if that’s enough grounds to actually change his ways. Something serious had to have happened in the two months he spent behind bars.
Now that I think about what could’ve happened that made him change his mind, another question that’s been in the air between Ed and me is what Hunter could’ve done to get two months in juvie. Initially, I made it up and said he was caught drinking underage, but now, I see the justice system is pretty lenient about laws against underaged drinking. The reason why I haven’t spent as much time deciding what crime Hunter committed is I’ve never really been comfortable with deciding any of that crime vs. punishment stuff so I wasn’t sure how to work it all out. What if I don’t tell the audience what Hunter did? He could’ve done anything to get two months. Maybe it wasn’t even two months—he was sentenced to longer, but he got out early for good behavior, which would support the fact that he did, in fact, wake up (spiritually) in prison.
When we find out that Hunter got busted again, it was after an argument with Charlie. Hunter storms out, leaving Charlie to then argue with Sarah about his handling of the situation. Then, Sarah storms into the bedroom, off to bed, leaving Charlie in the living room, sleeping on the couch (which is the arrangement since Hunter moved in). That’s when we transition to hours later when Charlie wakes up and he takes a call, which is Hunter, once again asking Charlie to bail him out. We only hear Charlie’s side of the conversation (exactly like last time). We hear Charlie ask what he did, but he never mentions Hunter’s crime once. So if I keep that, Hunter’s crime remains a mystery. That way, I can keep the two months to stick to my timeline, which is essential when the story follows a pregnancy.
There’s also one other update. I still feel as if Sarah’s willingness to name the baby a Wilson is too unrealistic. I think maybe Scott’s name should make an appearance. Not the mystery that she’s pregnant with her stepbrother’s baby. Just the name “Daly” should make a brief appearance. That way, maybe we can still see her process of elimination between Walsh, Wilson, and Daly. Walsh is a no-no because Sarah was disowned, hence her line, “Ever since I got kicked out, I’ve been feeling less and less like a Walsh myself.” I think I should also make it a point that she probably won’t be able to see Anne again because while it’s obvious that Sarah can’t really go back since she’s been unwelcomed from that house, Anne hasn’t made any effort to contact her either. I guess Charlie proved that the baby deserves his name because he’s put in more effort (financially and emotionally, considering he didn’t have to be a part of this pregnancy). Sarah doesn’t really want to be a Walsh anymore because it’s a reminder of the so-called “family” who abandoned her when she needed it the most. While she can’t really change her identity as Sarah Walsh, she knows she can raise the baby as anything she wants her to be. It’s like this baby is a fresh start. That’s another theme in her life, I guess: “Just because I screwed up my life doesn’t mean yours has to be. And I have the power to raise you differently, starting with your name.” “Walsh” is the old life she doesn’t want back. “Wilson” is the life she needs.
Maybe that’s all I’ve been trying to say. That’s all that Sarah needs to say in that scene in order to convince Charlie that this really is what she wants. It’s a shame that none of this occurred to me before the directing final, but that’s the past. That’s my Walsh.

So I wanted to delve deeper into the idea that Sarah and Charlie do not get together. Surely, people expect them to, but, like I mentioned before, it would defeat the purpose—my sole purpose—of putting together this story in the first place. So what if they don’t end up together? What if the only romance they get it purely experimental and they share a kiss? Maybe even after an experimental first date? The cause of this date would possibly be from Sarah having a bad day like maybe she doesn’t feel good about herself because of the situation she’s in.
Why would they change their minds then? Too weird? Why? Because they’ve trapped themselves in this mindset that this rooming arrangement was strictly business? Nah, if anything, they should feel pressured to rush their relationship to the point of romance because of the fact that they both need a solid family.
I want to break this train of thought, but I’m typing up this journal as my SIP diary. I was typing up the end of the 5/28/14 entry, which was about how I wrote the final directing scene so therefore I have legal rights to add lines. That got me thinking: what if I treat every scene like it’s a five- to 15-minute scene? During these scenes, I’ve noticed all acting class projects involve these random actors being in these scenes. If this show is going to be published—and if I want the motivation to get this done in time—I need to treat these scenes like that final directing scene and aim for 15-minute scenes. I know the entire show would be longer than, like, two hours, but that would be the revision stage of the writing process. If the scene seems too excessive at 15 minutes, that’s when we aim for ten, and then five.

When Sarah and Charlie met at the park, neither of them were happy. They were both trying to find the direction in life so they were anything but happy about it. The meeting—this blessing in disguise—was both of their first steps toward the happiness they both wanted and deserved.
Accomplishment: Charlie’s life goal was to dedicate his life to help someone else and then his heart felt a lot less heavy. This was his sense of accomplishment because he finally found his purpose. On that same note, while Sarah may feel like a failure and a disappointment, having gotten pregnant before her 18th birthday and then losing the baby, her success came from her strength—her ability to keep going after such a terrible loss. There is also Hunter’s and Anne’s story, which entail success, itself. While Hunter’s sense of accomplishment with his life plan is obvious, Anne’s is the overcoming of her fear of finding her own happiness with a man.
Sarah’s passion, before finding a home for her child, was the entertaining arts. Charlie’s is helping others in need, explained by his medical career and taking Sarah (and Hunter) in. Hunter hasn’t been able to pinpoint his own passion, but he figures it all out when his attitude changes.
Do I really need to explain how love plays into all of this? I think, though, I won’t have Sarah and Charlie fall in love after all. I took a few notes at the Joe Tracz meeting and he said he liked the fact that they never got together (he only read the first act), because from the moment they met, the audience expects this romance to happen any second. This makes sense because they’re both young adults who’ve been spending every second together. Of course, this defeats the purpose of this entire project since it started out as a way to get Logan and Selena together. Of course, this show has grown to much more than that.
Before my walk this morning, I managed to sneak in a karaoke song, which was Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat’s “Lucky”. That got me thinking: what if that were Fate, or God, or whatever you believe in, showing me the new title for the show? When my brother was spitting out ideas for the show, it started out as just talking about giving it a different title. As much as I like The Blessing in Disguise, it felt right, but whenever I saw it in my head: The Blessing in Disguise by Ginny Kang, it just feels incredibly awkward. Now that I think about it, that title was what the short story was called. Blessing is the short story version of this thing. Lucky will be the new one. While they aren’t synonyms of each other, the outcome for both of these things is the exact same, which brings us back to happiness.
This courage that Anne seems to magically get to defend herself against Bill, had to arise through practice. Thinking about this now, I want one of the first times we see her to be her in the middle of maybe working up the courage to tell Bill she just can’t do it anymore. Of course, she shouldn’t be that serious about pitting forth this bravery plan yet since she can’t even defend her own daughter when Bill makes the decision to kick Sarah out. It has to be obvious that Anne is trying to work her way up to breaking the news to him.
Fate plays a major role in the story. I’ve known that since I added Charlie’s monologue at the end of my final directing scene. The Day Something Happened is pretty much the definition of Fate. It’s the first step toward this everlasting journey for these two people.
With the randomness, I wanted to make it seem a bit like whatever happened to them to be random. Why do they lose the baby in the end? Was it something that either of them did or even neglected to do? Why do bad things happen to good people? It has nothing to do with who deserves what. For example, Scott raped Sarah and then went on to college on a football scholarship. Yet Sarah and Charlie are the ones who suffer by losing Katie. Again, I’ve been thinking about this as I was writing: if Scott had known about the baby and stayed to help out with getting ready for it, he’d suffer this loss as well. Basically, if he was a good guy, he’d be in pain. Since he remained a bad guy, he went about his way and now has a solid future for himself. Also, while we’re still talking about Scott, in the first couple drafts of the script, I was going to have him still be the bad guy, but not the villain. After Sarah loses the baby, Charlie tracks Scott down and requests he come visit her. And then that’s when we see he feels guilty over not being there for the baby stuff, although, in his defense, he never even knew she was pregnant, and even if he did, through his dad (remember, they’re still stepsiblings), he wouldn’t know who the father was.
Each character in this play is full of ideas with good intentions. Sarah has to keep brainstorming places to stay during and after her pregnancy. She knows it must be a stable home environment and she knows this is a long shot since she’s starting from scratch. And then, ever since Sarah proved that this living arrangement could work, Charlie devotes hours figuring out how to make it work for good. Hunter brainstorms in prison while Anne spends the entire show trying to come up with ways to tell Bill they were through. From the beginning, she has a long way to go before escaping Bill.
The babies idea goes along with childhood, which reminds me: when she and Charlie meet, I was thinking instead of the park, Sarah would be sitting at a bench in a playground. Since it’s a rainy day, obviously, no kids would be playing, but, making this up as I write, maybe while Sarah stares out into the audience, a track would play over the rainy track. This recording would involve Anne’s voice, telling a young Sarah to be careful at the monkey bars, for instance; or young Sarah wants to go on the swings; just something that implies that Sarah was reminiscing over when she had a great time at the playground. Then, after this memory has completed, it fades when Charlie shows up. I also brought up the doll, which is not only a metaphor for the show, but which also resembled childhood, in the deeper terms. Meanwhile, in simpler terms, the doll represents the baby.

Well, #BadIdeaGinny strikes again. I didn’t even drink an entire can of Coca-Cola and I’m still awake at a time that makes it already tomorrow. So now, I’m stuck brainstorming although I don’t even have any ideas to begin with.
Anyways: ideas, ideas, ideas…brainstorming, which reminds me. Maybe I should just spend a few minutes just writing random words. It’s a technique I learned in playwriting class. I think the idea was to get us to come up with something by jotting down words that cross our minds and perhaps in some kind of twist of fate, brilliant ideas stem from those random words.
Pineapple, kids, dancing, royalty, friends, school, vacation, rainbows, hands, heat, frozen, music, Brad Pitt, concert, bullies, happiness, accomplishment, work, passion, love, hair, pink, luck, practice, fate, destiny, random, ideas, smart, blood, babies, Private Practice, Broadway, dream, sweat, emotions, ambitious.
So…what ideas can I get from these ten lines?
I considered adding some choreography for Charlie and especially Sarah, but A) there’s only so much dancing she could do, and B) I’m not a dancer, myself. I think if I did decide to incorporate some dancing, I’d leave it to the director or at least someone with some dancing experience, which is already more than what I know. If there is going to be a dance number, I don’t know where it’d go.
When this story was just a short story, I had a best girl friend for Sarah, named Lindsay (in my mind, played by Emily Osment). I think the reason why I took her out was because I couldn’t see her role as something to help the story along. Even in the original version, she was just there. There was a scene right before Sarah goes into labor, Lindsay pays a visit to her and Charlie (and Hunter, technically, after he turned good). Sarah starts to feel paranoid because at this point, she and Charlie are already in love. Sarah sees some kind of spark between Charlie and Lindsay so she kicks her out. I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t see that scene working out in the realistic perspective. I felt it was better to leave any previous friends in the beginning. If I were to reintroduce Lindsay, I would have to change the scene. The whole jealousy didn’t work out too well.
In the original script, I had Sarah speak in front of a high school student body at an abstinence assembly to share her rape victim story. Now, this school was supposed to be the school that Hunter attends to graduate, so he just gets Sarah this public-speaking gig. One of my playwriting classmates had pulled me aside to tell me that I was victim-blaming. She knew I didn’t mean it in a negative way, but her point was my approach about the subject. My intention was to just warn girls, “Don’t just say no. Do something about it.” I realized that it might’ve still come across as “it’s your fault you were raped because you didn’t do enough”, but I thought I sort of redeemed myself by adding at the end of the assembly that Sarah and Charlie were offering free self-defense classes. I still don’t get how that couldn’t have come across the positive way I’d meant it, but the support group session makes a lot more sense, actually.
Music plays a role in Sarah’s life the way it does to mine. She sings and plays the guitar. The only difference between us is she dances a bit, too. (I’ve always had Selena Gomez in mind for this role, so sue me!) I’m planning on adding a role for the guitar for Sarah before Hunter comes in, so they’re still at that get-to-know-each-other stage. Charlie asks Sarah what she likes to do and Sarah says she’s been eyeing his guitar since she started living there, but she didn’t want to intrude. She plays her favorite song, which is this super-corny, yet super-catchy pop song like Call Me Maybe or Friday. I guess music is how they officially start bonding.
Brad Pitt, really?
Concert. What can I do with that one? Maybe nothing, but maybe something. What I’m thinking right now is, when Hunter sings about how Charlie doesn’t have anything better to do than constantly shoot him down, he sings it as if he’s performing in a concert. My ideal Hunter, Sterling Beaumon, is also a singer and he performs when he can. This could also be another guitar number, if this is going to have some sort of rock setting. Or maybe just like a Taylor Swift concert. Now that I think about it, though, I’m not sure if it would make sense as far as blocking goes. Hunter is front-and-center with an acoustic guitar attached to his person and the spotlight is on him. What would that seem like to the audience, though? To me, the way I picture it, he is just upstaging everyone because this whole time, he’s been self-centered and other people were just blurs to him. Wait…this could work.
While they aren’t your typical school bullies, Bill and Hunter both take on that role. Hunter changes, but Bill has always been the bully and there is no changing him. Nobody is his boss because he is always the boss.

My mom has me on this diet/exercise routine. Basically, I go for a walk (with her) every morning, which sometimes involves running, but that’s my choice. As long as I go with her on her daily walks, I’m fine. My legs have been feeling like they’re being stabbed when I run which is why I’ve been walking more recently. Mom says it happened to her when she started these daily walks, and she considered taking a respite until her legs got better, but she kept going and now, she can walk better than ever. Seriously. She walks faster than I do.
And apparently, this routine has been working out for me. It’s been a week and I’ve already started looking slimmer. That’s progress, I guess.
During one of these walks, I came up with a bunch of new ideas for the show, which motivated me to run more to get home quicker. I didn’t run the entire way, but enough to want to get home to keep the ideas in my head.
Anyways, it has to do with the opening number. I thought about the opening for Next to Normal: a song. The opening for Hairspray: a song. And they both set up normal life on the Day that Something Happens. Here’s how the whole “I Couldn’t Have Asked for Better” scene would go: the first line of it would be “It’s my 17th birthday and you know what that means.” That’s all I’ve got, but it’s upbeat and hopefully the tune sticks.
So, just like in Hairspray and Next to Normal, Sarah bursts into song as soon as she wakes up. Then, she, as well as Bill and Anne, paint a picture of what their lives are like—what their lives were like—before the pregnancy drama. The Day Something Happened is obviously Sarah’s 17th birthday, but also her first college campus visit.
I just realized something: Now, this is just a theory, but I noticed that in most stories—movies, mostly—there’s a scene between two major characters—or not even major, just characters—where they just get deep into conversation about a major theme in the story. Then, a quote from the epiphany in that conversation is foreshadowed at the very end, somehow helping the protagonist get what they need. For example, in the movie I watched today (which I’ve seen before, Grand Piano, a conversation occurs between the main character and a supporting role, they say it’s okay if he (the main character, a performer) played the wrong note because the audience wouldn’t notice. This performer was being pressured to play flawlessly—more like he was targeted since there was a gun on his wife. Anyways, he tanked the very last note in the piece because he knew the audience wouldn’t notice. After that piece, he still got a standing ovation and succeeded.
That’s what I’m talking about, though: foreshadowing. Doesn’t every story have that? So the audience can have this “aha!” moment because they’ve heard that quote before in a previous scene.
I know I have some in my show. The “I Could’ve Been” and “Don’t Forget” song some to mind, so I’m not quite sure what I’m getting at since I probably don’t need any more. It’s just an observation, I guess. But maybe my point is I need more foreshadowing. It wouldn’t hurt, right? As long as I’m not too clichéd and predictable.

My brother’s ideas from a couple days ago ranged from Anne being a female Satan who rises from the ground in the morning, to Scott actually being the hero even though he’s the only one who commits a crime and gets away. And then, the two battle it out in the end like good vs. evil.
One idea that I actually took into consideration—currently considering—is Anne being a recovering alcoholic. I might go with she’s a current alcoholic, but that depends on my research on the topic.
The way I’m picturing it is her alcohol addiction is yet another reason why her marriage is failing. At the same time, it’s ironic because if she hadn’t married Bill, she wouldn’t be an alcoholic in the first place. I’m still trying to figure out how it’s going to work during I Couldn’t Have Asked for Better. They’re supposed to portray this happy family even though, behind closed doors, they’re as miserable as any other family on the verge of destruction. My guess is, Bill keeps threatening Anne that he’ll fight for full custody of Sarah even though she’s 18, which is one of the major reasons why they were fighting, prompting Anne to continue drinking. I’m sure I’ll come up with new/better ideas to enhance the plot using her alcohol addiction after doing some actual research.

Well, I’ve been in California for about a week (since Sunday, actually) and I’ve finally done some work with my musical. I’ve had a lot more time so I could’ve made so many more improvements, except it’s summer break, man! Still, my SIP is for fall, leaving me the entire summer to do all the work. Now, that’s slightly difficult when your older brother has to study for next month’s MCAT. I guess my focus on the music can wait, and I can work on the book and lyrics.
Speaking of my brother, yesterday, he jokingly gave me ideas for my musical. The conversation first started out about the title itself. He pointed out the names of RENT and even Wicked (which he doesn’t even know the storyline). I have to admit, I’ve been battling the title, but I’ve titled everything under that name. My brother said it was too cliché. If you look at RENT and Wicked, you automatically are interested in what the play is about. Like, “What is Wicked about?” The Wicked Witch. With RENT, the question is why they struggle so much to pay their rent. When I decided on “The Blessing in Disguise”, I always intended on changing the title once I knew what was going to happen (this was back when it was just a short story). I heard that during the creative process, whether it’s a musical or a book, the title is often the last step before revisions start. That’s why I’ve been putting up with the cliché title this long. I’ll probably come up with Doll or something.

My scene was performed last night and it went a lot better than I imagined. I sent a bunch of notes to my actors the night before. I think maybe I was more nervous than they were because not only did I direct and accompany, but I also wrote the entire thing. Basically, my vision, including lines and emotions, were all being judged by an actual audience.
As I was watching it all onstage, it hadn’t really sunk in that every single thing that happened on that stage was mostly my entire idea. Each directorial decision was mine, though. When I watched it, I couldn’t help but think that all the acting decisions made onstage had nothing to do with me, but part of being the director in, not just performance, but any other business that needs a boss (trick question—every field needs a boss once in a while). That’s not true, though. At the beginning of this course, Ed told us that whatever happens during performance is exactly what we as directors wanted. Every line, each blocking, all the beats, even all the body positions, were so because the director wanted it that way.

Today was the final final scene rehearsal. As usual, it was at my dorm lobby, which was a big mistake. Half an hour into rehearsal, two of our neighbors asked us to take it to “LFAB or something”. First, the reason was because one of them had a little cold and she wanted a nap, but that reasoning morphed into the fact that it was time for our dorms to be on 24-hour noise lockdown. I wasn’t aware that the signs were put up the places they usually were, so I figured the 24-hour silence started when a typical week would start. #BadIdeaGinny strikes again.
So we had to take the rehearsal to the LFAB lobby. The Recital Hall was taken so we had to use the furniture in the lobby itself. It sort of ended up working out, as long as we ran through it several times, and I edited the blocking along the way.
Keeping Ed’s advice in mind, I sort of reviewed his notes and gave some insight on how my directing could improve. I did make a few changes, including adding two very brief lines. I tried having Sarah move around more, as well, but it’s just one small change.
At the very beginning of the scene, Sarah starts playing around with Charlie’s stethoscope. She listens to her own heartbeat and then gets the idea to take a listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Now that I think about it, I want Sarah to kind of struggle to find the baby’s heart since she’s not quite sure where the heart is supposed to be. This hesitation could also be foreshadowing because that’s how they find out what happens to the baby.
Then, once she does find the baby’s heartbeat, she sort of jams to it and when she’s done, she places the stethoscope back on the table. Then, hearing the baby’s heartbeat reminds her that she’s due pretty soon, which gets her to talk with Charlie about their plans.
Also, before she picks up the stethoscope, she picks up the newspaper and does a crossword puzzle. I’ll have her ad lib on the puzzle, which is actually funny. During the last run-through, she said, in concentration, “Five-letter word for ‘main character in Harry Potter’.” I literally laughed out loud at that.
Another change in blocking is when Charlie first goes to the couch. I just have him go to the back of it so he can lean on it while asking Sarah what was on her mind. That way, right before the song he doesn’t have to take the extra millisecond of getting up to get the notepad.
So the only change in Sarah’s blocking I made was she moves to the back of the couch right before getting in front of it to sit down at “I vote Wilson”. This was the only big change I made in Sarah’s blocking that just made sense to me.
That’s when “Sarah”, while trying to remember her lines, sort of started improvising, which gave me new dialogue ideas. While they discuss last names for the baby, when Charlie finally gives in and lets Sarah name the baby Wilson. I added a line for Sarah, asking for confirmation that he was, in fact, okay with it. I didn’t want it to seem like Charlie was too easy so his response was, “As long as it makes sense to you, I’m sure I’ll eventually understand.” So, that way, he’s giving her crazy idea a chance while she gives his crazy idea a chance.
I think that “Sarah” made a lot of improvements in finding Sarah’s character. Specifically, it was her second-to-last line when she’s nagging Charlie to tell her the truth. The nagging has to lead to Charlie just exploding on her.
A couple weeks ago in directing class, Ed told us how to get the actors to quickly recite their lines and loudly at the same time. I specifically remember he said, “Your actors are so excited and eager to say their line that they just cannot contain themselves.” I think that was what he meant. Well, for Charlie’s final monologue, that’s exactly what I advised him to do. I told him to just spit it out and he got through the lines without pausing. He was passionate about what he was saying because, like Charlie, he wasn’t thinking about it, because he just wanted to get it all out there as if he were going to forget it in the next five minutes and telling someone all this was going to preserve this confession. I told him not to slow down until he finally got to the conclusion of the monologue: the simply put motive behind his sacrifices.
I made a bunch of notes for before the performance like how to set it up and advice for the performance, and how to prep for the performance. I think actually asking them to set up might have been a misunderstanding. Ed told us to get there by 6:00pm (scenes start at 7:00pm). It’s possible that coming in at 6 was supposed to be for setting up our own scenes, but it was right after he mentioned the prep for the four people whose performances are in the Dungeon Theatre. I think. Now that I think about it, 6:00 was for us to set up our performance space. “Charlie” has the props because I thought I wasn’t going to see them until my final scene. Well, at least I can do the hard part of putting the set together. The instructions included what to do with props. This might be better though: a lot more drill time for my actors.