Day 3 -- Friday, February 19

Louis is dead. Long live Louis.

I ripped open the pages of my new script this morning to see what was left of Louis. The once obviously gay character had been reborn as someone who has "a tendency to push other people's buttons." In a way, that was originally the character Kevin's status in the world. So now Kevin had become someone who was trying to get control of his rage. Mary was still the insecure helpless one. My contribution to the show had ballooned to seven lines and they were mostly jokes. This was it. The new Louis had arrived.

The new Louis was a dud. The first time through the scene in rehearsal was agony. The timing was bad, the jokes were slow and weak, the comedy was nearly non-existent. Was this the work of the new Louis? Was it an obviously gay Louis that made the scene work before? We ran it twice more and it improved, for sure, but it still didn't feel like the hilarity I think everyone expects.

When Kevin Abbott appeared on the scene he gave me a knowing look and a hearty welcome asking, "So is the scene better?" knowing full well that the answer had to be yes. I confessed that I feared its klunkiness. This producers run-through would decide the fate of the new Louis. If the scene turned out to be a failure, I would blame myself for throwing such a wrench into it. More importantly, perhaps, some other people might start blaming either me or the new Louis or a little bit of both given how difficult it would be to seperate the two. In satisfying the demands of my ego, could I possibly have killed the scene?

Well, no, thank goodness. The scene went very well. Everyone responded nicely to the little things we had worked on during rehearsal. The clunkiness disappeared for a few brief shining moments and there was even a nice sense of timing to the whole thing. The new Louis was well received and I felt happy to be relieved of the shackles of the old Louis. What also made me feel much better was that the new version of Kevin was also well-received. The actor playing Kevin, Scott Adsit, was very funny during the run-through and I think his character has also improved.

A little while ago, Monday's script was dropped outside my door. Oddly enough, none of Louis' lines were changed. The new Louis lives on.

Go on to Day 4

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