Lunch Lady Run Through

Yesterday I was invited to a run through of Lunch Lady at the school that is taking it to the Fringe Festival. Great great fun.

I was invited to take notes, as well, and while the show isn't mine as much as it is theirs, it was great to get my grubby little hands on it again. I wrote 5 pages of notes, most of them for very small suggestions, things like:

ADD – give it a beat before the laughter – you’re anticipating. Jordan – unstrap your shoe. Dean Dean – excellent authority. Nice villainy. Stephen – concentrate on final consonants. Jah Jah Jah: awesome.

But occasionally I would indulge in little notes to myself, like

Boom – Go! Can’t let that energy fizzle. Damn! My fault. I gave you no transition. Who wrote this crap?!

And this one, which me coming up for air and realizing both how wonderful and how surreal it is to see stuff from my imagination up on stage:

At this point, I saw the forest, and was pretty moved thinking about you doing this show.

They were very responsive to my suggestions, which, I was careful to tell them, were only suggestions - it is their show now, and any changes I suggest should be decided between them and their director.

After I gave notes, I asked if they had any questions, and it was like a dream. You know that fantasy about being interviewed by Johnny Carson (if you're old like me) or, now, Terry Gross, or, if you're Jimmy Rabbitte in The Commitments, Terry Wogan? I got to do that. "How long did it take you to write it?" "Are you writing anything else?" "Any ideas for a sequel?" It's a rarefied experience, one I was privileged to have. Also, it was a frickin' blast.

But is doesn't take long to get weary of talking about oneself - even if that one is me - and that was that.

They are doing a "send off" performance on August 1st, which is the day before we leave for Roderickville, but I'm going anyway. It's free, and it's at 7:30 at their school. If you're local and you'd like to go, let me know.