My reading is tonight! I gave myself a headache from worrying so much about it. But I tried to relax as much as possible yesterday. Thursday’s class was cancelled because BU was running on a Monday schedule—they get Patriots’ Day off because they’re right in Red Sox/marathon territory, and since there’s so many Monday holidays, they rotate which day of the week gets a Monday schedule to make up for it. So I worked a half day yesterday and then ended up going out for a late lunch at Friendly’s with my mother, who’s a teacher and home this week on April vacation. But the headache still kicked in last night and hasn’t faded yet.
I met with my director after class on Tuesday. We talked for over an hour, and he had a lot of great ideas and seemed really excited about working on the play. Then my final “reading draft” of the play was due on Wednesday so that copies could be printed and given to the actors, so I did some last-minute revisions on Tuesday night. In just a few hours, I’ll be heading into my theater for some all-day fun with my play. From 1:30–3:00, it’s just me and my director having one more meeting to go over everything and get ourselves on the same page before the actors come in. Then the actors will arrive at 3:00, and we have a three-hour rehearsal before the reading. The director wants to have them read through the script once and read through at least some of it with some basic movement and blocking. Then the reading itself begins at 7:00, and I have a talkback with the audience afterwards. They’ll get to share their opinions on the show with me, and I’ll get to ask them questions about how they felt about certain parts too. The reading should help me figure out how to revise for the next draft.
Yes, that means this is (hopefully!) not the end of the line for this play. It is my MFA thesis, but the first reading is really just another step in the revision process. Thinking of it that way, knowing it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect tonight, helps me not to be as stressed. I have to think of tonight as a revision and learning opportunity rather than as the night that my play has to be perfect because people will see it. My director thinks it is in great shape for a first reading, so I am excited amid all the nerves.
I took a picture of the front of the theater advertising our Ground Floor Reading Series. My play is kicking off the series, and the first week is the readings of the thesis plays of all my classmates. The second week is staged readings by local playwrights, including an alum of the program from last year. So I’ll be spending a lot of time at the theater in the coming days. But I’ll make sure to write again after my reading and tell all of you how it went. For now, it’s time to shut down my computer and try to get my headache to subside before I leave for the theater.