Previews

May 22nd, 2010Blog0 comments

This play about Cambodian Americans is a lot sexier than I originally thought it would be (see attached photograph). I didn’t know Cambodians could be so sexy. Are we destroying old stereotypes or creating new ones? Personally I think it’s good to be stereotyped as sexy. Yours truly is, and it hasn’t created any problems for me.

So we’re now halfway through previews. This Saturday we have a matinee and an evening show, and then another matinee on Sunday. After a sprint through a short rehearsal period and a lot of rewriting, the script is finally locked. It was a challenging but really fun process — I’m going to repeat the most boring phrase ever used here: “Good Writing is Rewriting” — but rewriting under a time crunch is really where it’s at. The scarcity of time really motivates you to identify writing problems and solve them.

I’ve been in town for four weeks now and I’ve barely seen any friends. In fact, the only time when I do see people is when they come to previews. This is really nice of them, although it would be great to see people outside of this process. I’m happier when I see people over food, because then — hey, there’s food there.

So anyway, the script is locked. My job is technically over, so I’m decompressing with one of my favorite morning activities: Listening to music while drinking a Diet Coke and browsing the Internet for funny cat videos. Maybe I’ll go running later, maybe not. Maybe I’ll go to the Museum of Natural History, maybe I’ll get a slice. Who knows? It’s great to have a day off.

One thing is that I really miss LA. I can’t wait to get back. I got a lot of work to do. Plus I miss the culture and the slower passage of time. And I’ve been eating like I’m on vacation, and I need to get back to my regular diet of shoots and leaves.