Stratford, Prince Edward Island
I know - first I don't journal in forever and now two posts in two days. I should mention that we just got back from Cavendish (albeit through some really intense fog!). It's really wild to just say "Let's go to Cavendish", do it, and then drive home. Like McDonald's, I'm lovin' it. :) We also paid a visit to Maud's grave in the foggy night! How crazy was that? Although, it wasn't like The Haunted Wood - not with our way being lit by street lights, traffic lights, and the Petro Canada across the street!

At any rate, I have some news and I wanted to take a moment to make it official. You may recall that, over the past several months, I've alluded to an announcement I wanted to make but wasn't free to. I can now make it:

We are going to workshop 9LoLMM at The Confederation Centre of the Arts in late September!

We'd been in talks for quite a while about doing the workshop, but there were so many variables and the Theatre was so busy getting up the current season of Anne of Green Gables: The Musical and British Invasion that they couldn't very well tend to another show. But they were definitely interested and we based our move on that, although we did it not having any definite details! Anyway, we met with the artistic director yesterday and she was very enthusiastic. We'll be doing the workshop toward the end of September with the casts from the two shows mentioned above, who we are going to meet this week. We saw both shows last week and we already have an idea of who to cast as who, although our choices could certainly change!

All of this is with an eye toward putting a full version of the show on at the Centre next summer. I won't go into any of that yet...I need room for more announcements later on! :) We also don't know yet if the public will be invited to the workshop. But you know I'll keep you posted, only right here.

As for Leo and I, we're quietly juggling settling in, taking in PEI, and working on music and rewrites. For myself, I'm about ¾ of the way through the rewrite. I'm taking time out to do this update when I should be working on the next scene, which I decided to completely reinvent. I'm just in a long stretch with no songs and it was just getting too "talking head", so for the section featuring The Tangled Web, I came up with an idea to overhaul it, and then Leo added to that idea, so now it's just a matter of writing the reinvented scene. Right after that is the Why Did I Say Farewell scene. You may recall that, last fall, I had written lyrics and then thrown them out, coming up with something completely new. Well, when Leo put music to it, it came out to 4½ minutes. It's not his fault; it's a ballad, and he just put music to what I wrote. It didn't occur to me until we recorded it for the demo that it's just too long and kind of brings the show to a stop, especially because it's a second reprise. So we have to completely reinvent that one, too. That will have to wait until tomorrow!

I have a feeling there will be more frequent posts with more frequent news. So stay tuned! I'd better get back to that Tangled Web scene...