Bob Workshop in Tallahassee

I've just returned home from a 4 day Workshop of BOB at Florida State University in Tallahassee, working with the team from Actors Theatre of Louisville (including fearless director Sean Daniels. Or maybe he's just quietly fearful), and a fabulous group of theater students (and a Professor who played Bob). Locked in by unusually cold temperatures and with the help of a strongly beaned coffee shop near the Residence Inn, it proved to be very very fun and productive.

As is usually the case, my brain works about 30 faster in a workshop environment. Hearing the text out loud makes problems and opportunities so much clearer to me than it does when I'm sitting at home or at a cafe around here. I think that's because not only does the energy of the room inspire me, but a workshop (or a rehearsal room for a production) forces a level of focus and intensity that is unmatched. Somehow all my usual distractions (Facebook, email, news, laundry, porn) seem to fade away and not bother me. That needs to happen more often.

Some Script Change Highlights

• A big cut at the top of Act 4 seems to have unlocked something wonderful and needed in the play and characters. Yay for cuts
• 12 new characters including a Girl Scout. 8 of them in about 2 pages
• We lost a few characters too, including Candy, the Director of Development. God Speed, Candy.
• Favorite new stage direction : "Bob throws the bird poop back up in the air. The sound of bird being struck. A bald eagle falls to the stage]
• Favorite new line: "Well pin a gold star on your math chart, piglet."
• 30 new pages brought in
• A 15 pages shorter script
• Lengthy discussion on how we will know that an Actor is playing a wolf.

And the best sign on the way to the airport:
"Run from Satan. Walk with God."
[A Church sign promoting exercise]