Busy Busy and Liking it!

"When it rains it pours."

After a fun-filled 4th weekend here at Scarborough.....

Tuesday, May 2, Martha Gay (the Harpist of Cantiga and soon to have her own Blind Dog release) and I went to Alexandria, Virginia (think D.C.) to see a "Command performance" of our dear friends - Patti McKenny and Doug Frew's new musical "Becoming George". Its about the famous cigar-smoking, pants-wearing French cultural icon George Sand. There was a talk-back after the show with Steven Schwarz (Godspell, Wicked). Such a great show, such a delightful experience. And, with some of the anti-war sentiment (Franco-Prussian) kind of ballsy to perform next to the nation's capital! We know Patti and Doug from the old Chicago "King Richard's" days when they were involved with writing some of the festival-wide, day-long scenarios (mostly with a strong musical bent). Plus Patti and Doug used to help out with the "Don Juan and Miguel News" back in the day. It was so cool to make a madcap dash out to the East coast (we're working Scarborough) to see our good friends triumph! We hung out with them and the cast (director and composer) celebrating, conversing, joking and laughing until the wee hours. Thank you friends

The next day (Wednesday) we had to arise in the EARLY morning hours to catch a plane back to Dallas (thank you mr) where another creative event awaited. After dropping Martha off to her home I caught a ride with those fabulous ladies of Hey Nunnie Nunnie! and went to a writing retreat on Cedar Lake. Those attending were Don Juan and Miguel, Hey Nunnie Nunnie! and The London Broil boys. We met to discuss and form the next Blind Dog film project. We spent two nights and three days in a state of creative tension and bliss. The cabins were nice, the company delightful and the ideas terrific! We hashed out what we've been learning on our journey as filmmakers so that we can use this knowledge to go to a different level of story-telling while keeping our wacky sense of humor going. We came up with a truly elegant structure and have decided to film our newest during the run of the Sterling Renaissance festival! Such a beautiful part of the country! And such a talented group of people, it will be a pleasure to film there.

The writing retreat wrapped up on Friday morning. We left feeling inspired. The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the weekend.

THE WEEKEND.... Well, weekend five threatened rain on Saturday but it never actually manifested. The night before there were fairly violent storms all around us, but we seem to have escaped the worst of it, and just got some rain during the night. The temperature was perfect on both days! I must admit that many of the performances we do don't really stick with me (I can't remember them all, I don't have enough hard-drive!) But the QUEEN OF SPAIN SHOW at 3:30 on Sunday was one of the most bizarre and silliest things I've been part of in a long time. I had so much fun! If something could go wrong, it did! As we say...It was a hoot!

Monday May 8th: The day was spent hanging with Jim Hancock and Duncan Pace fine-tuning the new Lost Princess soundtrack CD. Plus we worked on our good friend Michael Marzella's CD - The King Sings.

Tuesday May 9th: Finished the Soundtrack. All is ready. Sweltered in the heat.