Okay, this is the weekend of rehearsals--we open on Wednesday and we have to get this right.

I know it can be right, I know it can, but we're still a bit at sea these days. I have the best cast and the best script imaginable, and I certainly have gotten shows up in less time than this, but I just don't want to betray either Patrick or the show itself.

I won't, we won't, I know we won't, it'll be wonderful, but last night was the rehearsal where I think "Argh! It'll never be right!" Usually, this is just before everything gets wonderful.

Omar is just having a terrible time with Clerestory, which I don't understand, because it is so clear in my head, and he is the person that I have seen in my head since the first time I read it, I think. He has this role inside him, but he doesn't see it.

It's just so close to his own self that that he is fighting fitting himself into the role, into the obsession and the compulsion and the...I guess the spinning inside the character's brain is what scares him. Maybe he fears falling down the hole.

The big giveaway was when we went into his bedroom so that I could look at his costume choices and I looked around and said, "Wow, this room sure is neat!" and he said, "Are you kidding? It's a filthy mess!" I started laughing and called Kirsten in. "Look, he thinks this is a mess!" She looked around with big eyes and started to laugh, too.

I swear, you could have performed surgery in there. He's got that role in him, baby. He was born to play it.

So what we did last night was run all of the shows in order for the first time. I didn't expect them to be perfect, and they weren't, but I wanted to see how it ran, the arc of the show.

Works good, my order that I chose. It's fucking short, though. It's about an hour ten, but there'll be a ten minute intermission so that'll help. I don't want the audience to feel gypped that they paid $15 for such a short show. I told the actors to do the scene changes slow.

Anyway, we ran the show and it was an hour and ten minutes, so we were done at 9.20p, then I gave notes and when Kirsten and I walked out it was 10.30p. "Did I really talk that long?" She looked at me like she looked at Omar when he said his bedroom was filthy.

My directing style is the ever popular "Never Shuts Up". Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal documentary said that Ridley Scott is a good director because he mostly directs by saying "Do that faster," or "A little slower, please," that anything else that a director says is mostly horseshit.

Anthony Hopkins would strangle me with piano wire if I ever directed him. Strangle me with piano wire and then dance on my grave wearing a red suit and playing "Happy Days Are Here Again".

Today's horoscope:
Time to catch up on the family news. Perhaps you can visit, or phone some other family members and hear the latest.

One year ago today:
...and why am I justifying this to a snotty kid making obnoxious noises while sitting in a booth like a veal?

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Last Updated Sun 23 September 23:36:09 2001