10-10

Sara Kestelman called me today to say how much she'd enjoyed reading Brass, which was an immense weight off my mind. Sara's blessing for the project is just so important to me, not only because, as the show's director, she's got to be behind it 100%, but also because it's Sara Kestelman! What that immense tower of theatricality doesn't know about theatre is almost certainly not worth knowing! She said it was a rich, robust and mature work which had moved her very greatly. With every new adjective, my heart swelled a little larger!

I very much enjoyed the fact that she came at the piece primarily from an actor's perspective, trying to work her way through the emotional challenges she felt the young cast members would face when interpreting what I'd written. I have to say, it's really nice to be working alongside her.

I worked, essentially from 10 until
10 today, pouring over every line in the piece. When you get on a roll like this, the difficulty is knowing when to stop. I tried to watch a bit of telly but found myself constantly returning to the script, thinking "just one more scene..." I think I'm a day away from finishing the draft, and then the scariest stage of all comes when I send it to the big boss at NYMT to read for the first time. If he turns round and says he feels it's too grown up or complicated for the kids, then we really are in trouble! I may ask for a collective crossing of fingers on my behalf at this stage!