30 - 1 Month/4 Weeks

One month. Four weeks. Thirty days. I'm not sure which sounds scarier.

I've been talking a lot about deadlines in my posts. They are really good to have! About two weeks ago, I scheduled a mini reading of DORIAN GRAY for Sunday, May 1. I needed to "rip the Band-aid off" and see if what I've spent the past 5 months working on was actually going to work. I had to do some major guerilla writing on Saturday and Sunday, but I managed to have something for every scene of the play. I knew it wasn't perfect, but it was a good start for the scenes that hadn't been written.

Words can't describe what it feels like when you sit down for your first reading. Everyone is on their tablet, phone, computer looking at your hard labor. "Dorian Gray: The Musical. Act 1, Prologue," the director reads. And the overture begins. It's the most gratifying and humbling moment.

My first rough draft isn't due until May 13, so having the mini reading was extremely helpful. I had been spending so much time on music and lyrics that I found myself getting away from the language found in the world of the play. As a result, several songs felt out of place...lyric-wise. In other words, going from the language of Wilde to the language of Chris didn't work. That's my new challenge: finding the balance between the two languages. Do I bring Wilde's language down a bit? Can I bring my language up to meet Wilde's? Is there a happy middle ground? Fortunately, it's not with every song.

Another fun thing about an early reading is hearing the characters' voices. The pages come to life all of a sudden and you can better hear what works and what proposes a challenge. There are some characters that I enjoyed hearing so much that I want to try to expand on their character if possible. It was also interesting to hear the comedy in the show, which I hadn't noticed while writing the script. I've since been able to capitalize on the comedy, placing more when the possibility arises.

Overall, I felt really good about the reading. I'm in a good place. I still have a lot of work to do. I should have my revisions from the reading finished by the end of the weekend.

I've got 30 days left. Winding down...or just getting started (school is finished!!!)