Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Much as I'm liking the we-haven't-had-a-winter-like-this-in-10-years snowy weather, 9LoLMM seems to be in the "uphill battle" stage. I think we knew this part of it was going to be a challenge, and it's not like we're anywhere near giving up, but everything is up in the air - we're not sure where it's going to be, we're not sure where the funding is going to come from. And we're playing the waiting game on pretty much all levels - can't do much of the way of rewriting until I get dramaturgical notes, Leo's left phone and e-mail messages all over the place and they're not getting returned. And now, of course, you throw Christmas into the mix. So, with just over 6 months left, things are getting a little tight.

Leo's been in L.A. the past three weeks - that's slowed things down to a point, although he's certainly done plenty from there. It just suddenly feels like we're in this kind of vacuum where we've ceased to exist. I've been pretty much relegated to doing administrative stuff - writing out all the character names on cards for the purpose of figuring out who's going to play which characters and reducing the cast (currently we have 18 adults and 7 children - still considered a bit large, but I don't see how it's going to go lower than that at this point), as well as making lists of costumes and props so we can start amassing some sort of budget. Everyone wants to know "How much?" Well, I can make lists from now until Doomsday, but I have no way of knowing what things cost. We have some feelers out on that one, too, but...we're in the vacuum!

To add to my frustration, I finish what I considered (and still consider) to be a kick-ass rewrite after 4 weeks of agonizing over it in 3 locales in 2 countries - but when I sat down to time it out, it wasn't nearly as much shorter as I anticipated it would be. Needless to say, I was very much not happy about that. It means having to do yet another rewrite and cut even more out of this thing. It's almost there, damn it! I'd personally like some outside, professional feedback before I make another attempt. But, The Waiting Game persists. I don't wait well. So, in the spirit of remaining proactive, I'm printing out this latest version and I'm going to make some notes of my own in terms of what else could be cut or changed. If I get some feedback by the time I'm done with my notes, great. If not, I'm just going to do it myself.

Next week, it's back to Toronto until the second week in January. Barring any more family emergencies (saints preserve us), we'll turn over some more rocks while there. And we're talking about going to see some more theatre. We went to see The Elephant Man last time out and it actually was very helpful in terms of seeing how things are physicalized on stage and it gave me some ideas, which I implemented in this last version.

Give up? Oh, no. Aside from the fact that I didn't come this far - figuratively and literally - to pack up my marbles and go home, one thing keeps coming to mind. Maud. Anne of Green Gables got dissed by four publishers. Did Maud give up? Yes, at first - by putting the manuscript in a hatbox. But eventually she made up her mind to put it back out there - and look what happened. If she had given up, Prince Edward Island would be a much different place and everybody whose lives have been affected by Anne - fans, scholars, writers, the works - would have had much different experiences! There would certainly be no reason to celebrate anything next summer! So I'm not going to give up just because it's gotten hard - even if only so we can tell the story next year of how things got difficult but we didn't give up and look where we are now! If ever there was a time to work the power of the imagination...it's now.

But you guys may have to remind me once in a while.