From the trenches of read throughs

What an amazing read-through we had. It felt great hearing most of the characters (but we missed Judy!) read the whole script. It took the story and project out of our (Abe and my) heads and gave the characters real voices and faces. There was a lot of momentum in that room tonight, and I can't even express how unbelievable it felt - here
was a room full of designers, actors, producers, assistants, all working on my show, this show I've been writing for 4 years.

The worse part of that night was that it was the third night I had been working non-stop. Two nights before it I had stayed up until 6:30am writing, then had to wake up at 11:00am for a conference call, and the night before that I had stayed up until 7:30am writing, and napping until 11:00am again. Then, at the read-through I had to sing the whole show beginning to end. Sometimes when I do crazy things like that, I truly feel my lack of skills as a singer - I was losing my voice by the end.

Abe rubbed his head against director Patrick's furry coat. I am often embarrassed for Abe, and I say that lovingly.

Melissa Li, Feb 14