Stratford, Prince Edward Island
"Rip and tear! Rip and tear!"

That's a quote from SCTV's "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses" skit - but it's terribly apt considering what's being done to the libretto! :)

I'm attempting to continue this rewrite - in between the increasing administrative stuff, that is. In some ways, grateful as I am for the progress, I'm reminded of how frustrated Maud would get trying to write in between all her minister's wife duties. I'm kind of only able to do this in drips and drabs. So, working on a scene that should've only taken a day at most has so far taken four.

You may or may not recall I had written two songs, The Correspondence of Edwin and The Further Correspondence of Edwin, all by way of describing the pseudo-triangle between Maud, Edwin Simpson, and Herman Leard. Well, the one thing that struck me during the workshop in September is that the whole sequence had a way of dragging, and now that we're trying to "stick to the through-line", I've had to reimagine things to make it tighter and more relevant. So, I've had to combine the tracks into one, and rewrite all but a few lines to make it reflect the new direction of the scene. It was much fluffier before, only leading up to the engagement. Now, the song is the engagement. I'd been used to the old version for well over a year, so when I started putting new lyrics to it, it seemed really odd. Fortunately, Leo likes the direction I'm going, and I think it actually makes the song more substantial while retaining its sense of fun. Obviously these are not changes I can implement in a 5-minute session! I'm having to go back through the journals, and even initial drafts of the libretto to try and make things make sense. Exhausting by itself! Let alone the three jillion other things that keep coming up to be taken care of.

That being said, I'm certainly grateful there's stuff to come up, considering not that long ago all was way too quiet on the Western front. And it's all leading to...well, something I hope to announce in the not-too-distant future; alas, I must remain quiet about it yet. :) I can tell you that we're not just trying to do this by ourselves anymore - more and more, we're getting help, and if that's not something to be grateful for, I don't know what is!

Speaking of reinventions, I hope to do one to the web site before long...if I can ever get the time, that is! (Wow - I really channeled Maud in that statement! LOL)