Stratford, Prince Edward Island
A real quick one, even this late. The last few weeks have pretty well been a whirlwind - and it's only just starting! Tonight I've been working on initial blocking plans, which all could go out the window once we start physically putting things onstage. It's a start, anyway. And while being sick, too! There's just no time to stop now, not even for a sore throat.

Spring has not sprung just yet - at least, not in the way I'd hoped, which means we're going to have to get most of the rest of the screen footage in May. A bit tight, considering rehearsals start 10 May and there's no telling how long it will take to have all the video processed. I'm just going on faith on a lot of this stuff. If I start thinking about how much time we don't have, it'll make me insane. So, using what little of the law of attraction I've been able to muster in the midst of all this craziness, I'm just assuming it will all come together and be ready in time. What else can I do?

Leo has to conduct Bugs Bunny on Broadway next week in Fort Wayne, Indiana - while he's gone, I'll be jetting off to Toronto. I have to look into adding to our kitty of costumes, but mostly I have to get more elements to display on our screen. I'm going to pop by The University of Guelph to see what I can get in terms of photos Maud took (especially interiors and exteriors of where she lived). But I'll be driving up to Lake Muskoka at Bala, Ontario where Maud and her family vacationed in 1922 to do some filming. You may recall we were up there in October. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I don't even mind if it's a little cloudy or foggy - when Maud used Bala as her locale for The Blue Castle, she did fictionalize it as "Lake Mistawis". To me that evokes mist! I guess we will, as they might say in Avonlea, leave it up to Providence.

It's been a really intense time and there are moments where it all seems very overwhelming. And stressful, particularly. It helps me to remember where we were a year ago, 6 months ago - even 2 months ago - and just how far we've come. That usually gives me the juice to keep going.

Well, there you go, April practically over. I don't know when I'll be able to get on here again, but who knows - I may be pleasantly surprised. Somewhere under all of this I am extremely grateful, and hey - I could be back doing data entry like I was this time last year! Hard to complain when I put it that way!

Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Just a little sense of déjà vu tonight. Tomorrow is our first day of auditions, and I'm spending the evening printing out "sides" - pages of dialogue for the actors to read. A little over 7 months ago, I was doing the same thing in preparation to audition the company of the Confederation Centre - you may recall their cast stepped in for the workshop. How much the same printing these sides up is, and how different!

Obviously, the main difference is that back then it was for the workshop and now it's for our own production. But the thing that strikes me the most is the libretto! I had to reference some of the older drafts over the weekend while I did a little cleaning up on the current version (I'd love to say "final version", but we still have to get a pesky 6 minutes out of this thing) and I about cringed! It's not that it didn't have its merits, but I've learned an awful lot about this the last several months and...well, it's not so much that it's painful looking over the old versions, but more awe-inspiring that there have been so many changes. And yet, it's essentially the same story, just reinvented.

There's a line in An Epoch In My Life, the duet where Maud and Anne marvel at the publication of Anne of Green Gables, where Anne says "To-day I go out and meet the world!" - and that's kind of how it feels. It's not just Leo and I discussing the script anymore. It's not even putting it in front of dramaturgs. Now we're really bringing other people into it. I'm not nervous, actually...it's just an interesting experience.

Well, back to work...and I don't dare count the number of days just now!