The rehearsal room

I had to get to work by 10:30 AM in order to do something quite small yet vital, and then I didn't really need to be there til a little before 2. I had plenty of work I could do in those hours, but I wanted to try to find something to do that would take me out and away on the beautiful day.

The thing is, what was going on at work was too interesting to leave. We had three exceptionally good actors —Jeffrey DeMunn, Geneva Carr, and John Horton—and extremely talented playwright and director—Deb Margolin and Mark Brokaw—and they were rehearsing for a couple hours before the public presentation (which I thought was going to be up on its feet, but which turned out to be a reading.) The level of discussion about the play, the stakes, the characters and their inner conflicts was engaged at the highest level, and I realized that I didn't really want to be anywhere else other than
in the room with these folks, remembering what brought me to New York in the first place, and how infrequently I actually get to create theater any more.

As it turned out, there's a fair amount of Yiddish in the play, and I was able to do Yiddish pronunciation coaching with DeMunn and Horton (it took much better with the former than the latter) which was an unexpected and delightful contribution to be able to provide. I also had a good talk with DeMunn on a break about finding the stakes in the play. All this was enough to remind me why I came to New York in the first place, and frankly, how far I've drifted from the work I love.