We had the first table read of the Under the Poppy script today and … where do I start?  Not only did I learn a great deal about how (and why) the words met the air, all of which will aid me immeasurably as I revise, but watching real live actors engage with the script was a total thrill.  And the talk/questions/feedback/scrum of ideas afterward, with people who know and love and study theatre, hearing what they thought of the play, what images they saw in their minds’ eye(s), their suggestions and blue-sky dreaming: exhilarating.

What was best of all, though, was  “fun”: as in, this would be such a fun show, a fun world, to set design, to stage, light, costume, act in: fun to be set free in the louche and passionate confines of the Poppy, and make it, as you play, your own.

Is it possible to have too much fun?  No, it is not. Thank you, actors, readers, and especially Julanne Jacobs, who set this day in motion, and Diane Cheklich, collaborator extraordinaire.