I think the word is overwhelmed. I leave in about 48 hours for New York, not knowing how long I will stay, nor really what to expect. We are less than two weeks from previews and less than three weeks from opening night. The show is now the least of my concerns, although it will take center stage, literally in a week.

The first thing you notice is the number of people on the e-mail list. Every communication is vetted by at least a dozen people. Everyone has a different addenda and different needs. Since I am the varnish, it is usually up to me to bend to the shape of those needs. It becomes tough when the needs of the many conflict with my personal comfort zone.

I am drowning in a sea of professional and personal items here at the house in LA. I’m trying to determine what can be sent to the theatre, what needs to be sent to the apartment and what am I taking with me on the plane. Most of the back stage items went directly to New York when we closed last month in Boston. There are a couple of dressing room boxes that have been stored in New York since the Atlantic Theatre Company run. It will take some time to unpack and gather it all together and get it all in its proper place.

I will feel much better when I have moved into the theatre and have the dressing rooms set up. The characters will occupy one of the extra spaces. Then it will be all about the previews, then the keystone cop routine of opening night. Then the next hurtle.

The key is to live in the moment. Be here now, right Ram Dass? I never thought that would be so hard to do.
As you were,
Jay