The Theatre Director

I went to see Slessor the theatre director. She has been looking at the story and making notes and doing directorial stuff. We started discussing the opera. She tells me certain things can not work. It can work if it's a film but can't work on stage.  Every few minutes she stops and says that's not going to work you will have to change it. So I change the story a little. Then again. Then she's asking questions too many questions. I realise I haven't got all the answers. I have written a story but it's not enough.

Luckily Slessor is very patient with me. I think of alternatives. We add extra characters to make the story work, to make the story better. We need new songs. I have to write more music. Help!

Slessor says "Don't worry Mike this is the easy part. It's going to get much harder before we're finished."

My head is spinning. Slessor is very clever. She is much more intelligent than I am. She is thinking so fast I can't keep up. She is asking questions faster than I can think of answers. As soon as I find an answer she jumps on me with another  question which changes the answer to the previous  question. Slowly a story develops that is better than my original. It's more complete and makes more sense. After three hours all I want to do is go home. Slessor is still very excited and tells me we must finish talking about  the first part of the story so she has something to work on after I leave. So I struggle  for another half an hour. I have to explain to Slessor exactly what people are thinking in the opera, I have to explain why they are doing what they are doing. I have to explain my idea of the story and how I think it works. I have to have a background story that explains peoples feelings.

Who knew it would  be this difficult? Slessor of course. Slessor knows how difficult it is. She has done this many times before. It's her job. But I wish she would slow down. She will never slow down. It's what she is like. But if this Opera is going to work she will make it work. I have more confidence in her than I have in myself right now.