So this morning I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and thought, "Dear God, dear God not again!!" then went back to sleep for another five hours and was extremely happy. Because baby, sleeping for three hours and then, several hours later, sleeping for five hours does not add up to sleeping for eight hours. You'd think it would, but you would be entirely wrong.

Sleep is good. I like sleep. And clearly I need more of it if that's the best I can come up with.

So yesterday I napped all day, then staggered to the theatre.

The 9p show was closing, and I really wanted to see it no matter how exhausted I was, and did in fact manage to stay awake for the extravaganza. But barely. It was four of Le's River Plays, shows that I know so very well that it is hard for me to just enjoy the shows because all I can see is missed opportunities.

That said, there were some nice moments by some of the performers sometimes, although if Le is going to cast such old actors in the roles in Lulu One Last Time, they shouldn't be reminiscing about being teenagers 15 years ago. I expected them to say, "Remember 15 years ago? When we were 40?" Perhaps they should start saying that it was 25 years ago.

And honestly, Baiting the Hook has one of the greatest and most hilarious lines that Le ever wrote, "I will not have you calling your retarded brother a fuckhead!" and it broke my heart to hear it rushed through as it was.

I won't even discuss the fact that nobody taught the Lulu boys the actual tune for that song. Or the fact that they were all wearing so many layers of clothing that it has never looked less as though they were about to go skinny-dipping, more like they were slightly warm, so they thought that they'd take off one of their five shirts.

When I got home, I was so tired I just wanted to fall into bed and die, but first I had to call Mom and help her re-install Office, which was less traumatic than I thought it would be.

Afterwards, the longer I stayed awake the less tired I was, so I decided just to stay up for a little while, because I just have to get stuff off of my TiVo for crying out loud, and while I was up, I started emailing back and forth with Le about Talking With...

He came to the show last night, and as he was leaving, he asked me whether or not I wanted to direct the mainstage in July, something with a lot of women, like The Vagina Monologues or something else that was a lot of women's monologues, so I suggested Talking With..., a show that I had co-incidentally been thinking about recently, and he said okay! So I'm running with it.

He's getting really excited about the show, I think he maybe did a little research and reminded himself of it, he mentioned that he had seen it on PBS some years back, and mentioned a few actresses that he wants me to offer roles to first, and I countered with a few people that I want to work with, and suddenly I'm doing this show!

I need to read it, of course, since I haven't done so since I performed in it myself twenty years ago. I remember Handler, (my monologue), Rodeo, (with Jessica Lundy), Dragons, (with Jessica Hecht--Ross's ex-wife's lover in Friends), and Audition, (with a live cat), but the rest either are fuzzy (I sort of remember Twirler, Marks and Clear Glass Marbles) or we cut from the show (Scraps and Lamps), so I clearly can't really be thinking about casting until I'm more familiar with the various and sundry pieces.

I was also reminded with the logistical problems of some of the pieces, like all of the lit lamps that need to be on the stage for Lamps, the marbles dropped all over the stage in Clear Glass Marbles, the cat in Audition and the snake in Handler. Not that I got to have a live snake on the stage when I did it, but I wanted one so badly that this time I really want to do it.

I also started thinking about actresses that I really want to work with, like my Irish usher from the other day, and actresses that would be great for the show, like Kelly. I dropped her an email asking her if, hypothetically, one of her cats could be in a play without freaking out, and she said hypothetically yes.

I don't think that piece could be done by someone who wasn't working with their own cat. Were I doing the role, I'd use Baldrick because I know his limits and can control him, but he'd get hysterical without me there holding him so I wouldn't have any other actor work with him. Kelly would be great in Audition, it's the role for her, and the fact that she actually owns a cat that she's willing to bring onstage is even better.

I'm all fired up about this show now. Rehearsing eleven actresses separately will be a gigantic pain in the behind, but I think that the show will be worth it.

Today's horoscope:
In the mood to meet some new and interesting friends? Great -- because that's exactly what's on the agenda. All you have to do is show up. Oh, and take a friend along to compare notes with.

One year ago today:
Before Talk to Me Like the Rain I told him that Jesse's role would be something that he could play, but the show is such a downer that when it was over he turned to me and whispered, "If I played that role I would commit suicide during rehearsal!"

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Last Updated Sun 9 May 15:12:09 2004