A marker in time

Marathon’s first workshop! / Issue 1,498

Oh, hi friends!

Well, that was the best week of my life!

We held a weeklong workshop of our new musical Marathon.

Here’s how it went down: the director, music director, stage managers, general managers, cast, and us writers gathered on Monday at 9:30 a.m.

In 29 hours over five days, the actors learned 14 songs, Kris and I tweaked and revised music, scenes, and lyrics, and we just kept running.

Turns out my ideal environment is a collaborative creative playground with the most talented people I’ve ever met.

The cast…I don’t have words: Liz Callaway, Thom Sesma, Ethan Carlson, Stephanie Bacastow, Tracy Sallows, Leana Rae Concepcion, and Yael Rizowy.

Everyone in the room was so nice and generous. (This was high on my wish list for this whirlwind process. Nice people only!!!)

Our director Tyrone L. Robinson set the tone with his warmth and vision.

Our music director Simone Allen taught songs with grace and confidence.

The week was a blur of being in flow state, eating PB&Js that Colin made for me, and hearing songs and dialogue in my dreams.

On Friday, we held two presentations for 90 people. The audience was full of family, friends from my Daily Beast & Newsweek days, runner friends, industry people, BMI folks, and so many performers and writers I admire.

And then people laughed! They cried! Everything went beautifully!

My heart is so full.

The point of this reading was to get something up ASAP, to give ourselves a deadline, to hear the show in the mouths of actors and in front of an audience, and to propel us to think even bigger and better.

So I’m considering this a little marker in time. Not an ending, not a beginning, but somewhere in between.

It also feels like confirmation, I guess you could say, that all the little steps — the little steps you’ve taken with me too, right here, every day — add up.

They actually add up.