Parking Permit

Day 2 -- Monday April 20

9am. Table read. Tragedy has struck. My two scenes have been whittled down to one line each. The Curse of the Lost Voice wrecked havoc on my role. Or something did anyway. Rick was on his way out.

Or so I thought. After further examination of the script, I found the second scene had really just been relocated. So, I was left with a few lines sprinkled throughout and then a decent scene with my brother near the end. And you know what? That's fine. The show has gotten better with the re-writes (and, of course, I thought it was great before) and whatever is for the good of the show is eventually what's best for me. Total lines in the pilot is not so crucial.

So, armed with that realization and the decision to stop fretting about whether the show "makes it," I really had a great time today. It was a typical first rehearsal. We plodded through the script, blocking each scene, running it once more, and then moving on. Not really a whole lot of prep time before 4pm was upon us and the producers started to show up. We then took the whole mess and put it together, running start to finish. Some moments clicked. Some clanked. Just hearing/seeing/feeling it all together was quite an event, and a major accomplishment. Of course, making it all funny/interesting/successful? That may still take a good deal of work.

After the run-through, I spent a few minutes in wardrobe trying on numerous retro-chic professor-looking clothes. And after that, I had a thirty minute guitar lesson, during which I learned how to look like I'm playing a guitar. And at 6pm my day was done.

My overall feeling? About the show -- I still think it's all very funny. The people are still great. The cast is still very talented. No problems there. About my experience -- let's just say there were many times today when I was just sitting or walking around doing nothing in particular, and waves of tingles would mount an attack on my limbs, charging into my chest and gathering strength in my throat, until they left my body through the big, goofy smile plastered across my face. I was spending my Monday on the set of my first pilot. I love it.

Go on to Day 3

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