ten red hen

We've begun rehearsal. Of note:

1. I am not looking for a traditional performance space. Just a big empty room. No one with whom I speak seems to understand this (though I tell them this, repeatedly and explicitly). Once I tell them I'm doing a musical, they just talk theater spaces--stages, flies, big lights, big rent. God bless them all. I think I'll tell them we're doing art therapy, or holding AA meetings, as opposed to a show. Only way to get what we need.

2. We're starting the entire process having our actors learn the music--straight singing rehearsals. And all those voices in this room are irresistably thrilling, as I sit here in the corner having the musical director do his thing.

In other notes, Tyler Perry is in Oakland with "Madea Goes To Jail" this weekend--I really, really wish I could go. My kids in Mississippi loved him--traded bad VHS copies of his stage plays--and I've never been.