It seems that we’re missing the Great New York City Flood of 2007. I heard that no subways were working this morning. We’re all very happy to be in New Haven. Leitmotif had its meet-and-greet and first read-through today.  A terrific group has agreed to help Tory with the script – Nancy McDonial (who came all the way from NYC to work on Leitmotif), Rebecka Jones (who lives near New Haven), Stephen Stout (who also lives near New Haven) and Erica Sullivan (who is going to be a second-year acting student at the Yale School of Drama in the fall).  Drew reported that the read-through was very successful.  (Drew keeps making fun of me because I keep asking him if Tory seemed happy.)  Ken and Krista spent the day holed up in Sterling Library to do some research and to write, while Dan and Mia worked on the script for Kill the Keepers.  Krista mentioned that she found some offensive tract called Mexifornia by some Stanford professor; the tract (is it a book?  an essay?) blames Mexican immigrants for the socioeconomic decline of California.  K’s been doing some research on the “immigrant experience” for her play Filling – and she apparently emailed Mr. Mexifornia to ask him some questions about his views. In the evening, Liz and I met the group at the Yale Summer Cabaret to see The Bacchae.  Liz stage managed a number of plays at the Cabaret when she was an undergrad; she waxed nostalgic throughout the evening.  The production was more Godspell than The Bacchae.  Still, The play began in the Cabaret and then moved outdoors.  There was lots of climbing on scaffolds and pouring of wine.  Pretty impressed by one particular actor – very charming, easy demeanor.  And, while we enjoyed the play, we all collectively wished that there had been more skin.  It’s a grad school production of The Bacchae, for crying outloud.  There was honey and lots of wine – but where was the nudity?  

We’re in New Haven.  Liz and I spent most of the day dealing with logistics. But they’re all here: (in no particular order) Tory Stewart, Ken Weitzman, Mia Rovegno, Jack McDowell, Drew Barr, Krista Knight, Dan LeFranc and Nancy McDoniel. The playwrights spent the afternoon getting settled in. Ken Weitzman (who flew in from Atlanta) and our fellow Krista met with Jen Kiger of the Yale School of Drama to discuss their plays. Mia Rovegno and Dan LeFranc unloaded the props (They have puppets!) from their car and arranged them very neatly in their rehearsal studio. Tory locked herself in her apartment to work on Leitmotif for tomorrow’s meet-and-greet and read-through with the actors. New Haven parking is expensive. In fact, New Haven is expensive. A slice at Naples Pizza is $1.75 – I pay $1.50 at Sal & Carmine’s on the Upper Westside. Maybe the guys at Naples could tell that I was coming in from New York and jacked up the price. But the Doodle (which, after Louis’ Lunch, has the best burgers in the world) still serves hamburgers for $2.75. There’s no better deal. Liz and I had two hamburgers each before heading over to a coffee shop to catch up on e-mail. We met up at 6:30 to head over for dinner at Bangkok Gardens, my favorite Thai restaurant. I can’t really think of any Thai restaurant in New York City that compares to Bangkok Gardens. No Manhattan restaurant offers tastier massaman curry. At dinner, Tory explained that she decided to become a playwright after working for a number of years as a stage manager. Apparently, she wrote a play while she was stage managing some Peter Sellars’ piece and then, on a whim, applied to grad school. I’m not doing the story justice. I’m always interested to find out what draws people from one career to another. I love those types of stories.