Yesterday was a busy, productive, and very positive day. Went to work and actually had enough stuff to keep me occupied for pretty much the entire time I was there. At quitting time I ran out of there and raced home to meet Bernie, with whom I was going to the Burlington mall. He wanted to restock his teas from Teavana, I wanted to finally get my hair cut. I think the last time I had it done was July, and I was really starting to look rough. It came out nicely, I think, though the stylist I got this time didn't style it with product like the last one did. As usual, no one noticed, but I'm just pleased that it looks good.
After I came out of the chair we raced back to Brandeis to pick up Steph. Bernie dropped us off at my house, where we found Frances sitting on the front step. A lovely surprise, certainly. We invited her to come to the grocery store with us, and she helped us prepare the dinner we planned for the cast. The main course I decided on was chicken chasseur, a Rachel Ray interpretation of a classic French dish with chicken in mushrooms, tomatoes, shallots, and white wine, browned on the stove then braised in the oven for forty-five minutes. I was momentarily thrown by the fact that I didn't seem to have any white wine left, so I took a chance and combined white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar to sweeten it a little, and used that instead. I was relieved upon tasting it that it worked, with minimal change to the intended flavor of the dish. Green beans served as the accompanying vegetable, though I don't think I made quite enough for eleven people. Steph indeed made her delicious strawberry-filled empanadas for dessert, and Bernie brewed a pot of tea from his new Teavana haul. The cast seemed to very much enjoy it, though it turned out Charlotte was a vegetarian. Ah, well. Almost perfect, but not quite. If truth be told, I was kind of hoping to impress them with my multitalentedness. She acts, she directs, she writes, and she cooks too? Yowza! ;-) I know, I know, I'm pathetic.
After dinner came the readthrough. I had packaged the scripts beautifully in textured white envelopes and labled each one with the actor's name. I had this fantasy of, like, tracking each one of them down in a newsboy cap and handing them over, saying "This was messengered for you from the studio, miss." But I didn't really have time and it would have been too hard to figure out where everybody was without spoiling the effect. So I settled for passing them out at the readthrough, which was almost as satisfying.
The readthrough itself was amazing. It was so cool to hear the actors I'd chosen speak the material for the first time. They did a wonderful job, sometimes even managing to capture what I'd heard in my head, and I'm so excited to work with them all. I was extremely gratified by their understanding and appreciation of the script, and the way they all meshed together so well. I loved Kindness's instinctive grasp of his character, and so many of his line readings were spot-on. Jared, of course and as always, was wonderful, and even though I didn't even know him when I wrote this play, he unbelievably well embodies his part. He's such a fantastic actor. God, everyone was fantastic, and I could gush about them all day. Also, I think this gave me an idea of what stuff we'd need to work on as well, which will be helpful for my planning.
So I believe we are off to a strong start. I assigned them to memorize their lines over the break, and plan on doing my blocking over the next several weeks. I feel very good about this, and I am incredibly pleased that yesterday went so well.
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