I met with Dana Sachs, my director, last Friday, 10/13. I snuck out of work to meet him at the Greek Olive on Sargent Drive. It was an awesome meeting. We tweaked a few things and cut a few characters. I'm still considering cutting an actor, meaning one woman will play two characters. We are very dead on and agree about a lot of things. We want a sparse set, with lighting serving as time and place changing. We streamlined the script a bit, in ways that I really felt comfortable with. I have to finish those revisions within the next 24 hours. We also made Joe's age (the person that represents Lenny, my cutie-pie for life!) irrelevant, so that we don't throw in any weird Freudian interpretations. The line about his age will be replaced with something about the fact that he's a water zodiac sign. Since the play centers around burning and fire imagery, the fact that Joe, the "knight in shining armor," counters Kevin, who is the one represented by fire, by being a water sign sort of ties things up nicely. I'm wary about tying it up too nicely, but then, if you're going to use the fire imagery, it does need to have a final conclusion. It's part of the story arc.

It was like stepping back into the perfect pair of jeans, meeting with Dana. It felt absolutely right. I didn't want to stop talking, I didn't want the moments to pass so quickly. I felt like a real playwright, collaborating and getting feedback from someone who does a lot of theater. And Dana's pretty cool. He is super-friendly and we get along great. He really respects my opinion as a playwright. He also said, previously, over the phone, that he was happy that he got my play, because it was the only one he really liked. Over lunch I asked him what he liked about it and he said that he cared about the characters. He liked the writing. I honestly wasn't fishing for compliments, but rather trying to figure out what I had done well. I mean, it's just as helpful to know what I do wrong, or what is weak, but there does need to be something positive, especially after fifteen years of writing.

Oooh...when can I do this full-time and forever?