TEARS, LAUGHTER, RESPECT AT BLACK LIVES FIRST REHEARSAL

Last night was our first rehearsal, which I always conduct in my apartment here in Spring Lake (aka Sprung Leak).  We cram in, all the talent, hopes, fatigue, curiosity, genius of the cast.  Working on BLACK LIVES is a very emotional experience for me personally. At times I weep as I work on the script. So many of the monologues, the things said, are so very moving.  Bits of the lives of American blacks are laying bare before me as I type, arrange, consider, assign roles, all of this.  And last night during rehearsal it happened again. As I read a monologue I just started crying.  And it wasn't only me. One of the cast members, as he read a piece, his voice was breaking up. Oh, let me add, outside in the street, the cast and I laughed our asses off in the middle of the stone-dead silence.  So-- you do not want to miss the catharsis BLACK LIVES will offer-- the tears and the laughter and the respect this play hopes to offer in appreciation for all the gifts Africans living in America have given us.