WESTON IS FOR PREGNANCY

The first of my dispatches from Weston, VT: so hot off the presses that I haven't even left the state yet!

By Julia Meinwald (Composer)

Hello cyberworld! I’m back in the warm glow of Crazytown for the month of August to write about the upcoming production of Pregnancy Pact, the musical I wrote with inestimable lyricist Gordon Leary, at the Weston Playhouse at the end of the summer. This is the awkwardly timed first post, set to go up before I have even left Manhattan, in which I shall prattle on about being generally excited about things to come. (Here I desperately want to link to one of my favorite songs (“The Night Before Is My Favorite Part”) from one of my favorite new musicals (The Shaggs, seen last season at Playwrights Horizons) but I can find it nowhere on the internet! In its stead, please accept this humble offering of a song by the eponymous rock group on which the show in based, in all their inscrutable glory)

Last night I sat down to translate my packing list into neat, convenient, sensibly organized reality. Some excerpts from said list:

Metronome
camera and charger
3 necklaces?

The first because I approach tempos like one of those skiddish horses that people won’t let children ride—I just generally spazz out when asked to tap out the correct tempo for my own damn song. Camera and charger are of course for documenting the non-stop goodtimes, which will basically be happening 24/7, in no way interrupted by my compulsion to photo document everything. The possibility of three necklaces because I want to look pretty.

Packing commenced after drinks with my wonderful college roommate Anna, who suggested that I put on some funny music, so on went Swing Lo Magellan (the newish totally awesome Dirty Projectors alum) and packing began auspiciously to the song “About to Die”. I go back and forth about packing old school manuscript paper. In truth, I mainly notate directly into Finale these days, but in scenic Vermont anything could happen! My red spiral Passentino goes into the awesomely large backpack I purchased a few weeks ago for my future life as a competent biker lady. (Apparently bikers don’t roll around town with large Vera Bradley totes hanging off their right shoulders.)

Gordon and my company housing will be in actual houses we are told are just across the street from the rehearsal space. We will have towels, kitchen things, laundry, etc in the building. I enjoy picturing the August version of myself that cooks food from scratch. In reality, I think the most I can shoot for is being Gordon’s enthusiastic sous chef while he makes macaroni and cheese for everyone.

So far all of my technical pre-departure errands have been a complete fail. After an hour on the phone with tech support from my day job (that is graciously letting me take a month’s leave to go to Vermont), we cannot figure out how to get my laptop to connect with my work computer remotely. Nightmares of returning to work in September to a cool million emails. When it comes time to replace the SD card in my cell phone (pre-departure errand #2) I cannot figure how to get the protective case off of the phone and have to admit defeat until the Sprint Store opens the next morning.

Despite these setbacks, my spirits are high. For the month of August, I will actually be….a professional writer. My only activities for the month will be those of a musical theatre writer. (Punctuated by the occasional deleting of hundreds of work emails about which I need to do nothing because I’m on leave, y’all!) I have no idea what it will be like. I couldn’t be more excited.

Comments

[Kimberly Lew (Playwright/Blogger)]

Yay! Welcome back, Julia! I've always loved your blogs, and I am so excited to hear about the progress of Pregnancy Pact. (Also, I'm always thrilled when someone mentions The Shaggs, which I love and wish there were hundreds of videos of online)

[Ravingrusalka.wordpress.com]

Hello Julia!!!
You're so adorable. I love this pre-departure blog.
"For the month of August, I will actually be….a professional writer. My only activities for the month will be those of a musical theatre writer."--girl, that is awesome!
Enjoy enjoy enjoy! And I can't wait to hear all about it. :-)

[Julia Meinwald (Composer)]

Yay, thanks Kimberly! Someday there will finally be hundreds of Shaggs videos online, and everyone will know that day because it will be the one when we stop leaving the house because we are glued to our computers :)

Nina! Thank you for the kind wishes--you'll have to g chat me with the origins of your wordpress name....