Though this is a quote from GUTS, it also describes how I am feeling today, exactly one week before the vision of GUTS materializes.
Yes, I am here. A couple of years back (and forgive me for the cheesy moment....) I read 4 lines from my diary to my mentor, Gregory Simmons, and he said "You must create a play out of this!"....
"What?! Who? Where? How?.....No way! That's a crazy thought!", I responded... Plus, it's my personal "stuff"!
Mr. Simmons insisted that there is something very universal in my messages, he urged me to keep writing, he urged me to get out of my comfort zone, he urged me to develop a play because what I had to say was bigger than me...
I resisted. I resisted A LOT....But what kept me going (other than Mr. Simmons' incessant support and faith in this project) was that deep inside I knew that GUTS could make a difference. At first I didn't know exactly what kind of "difference", but I'm more clear about it these days.
The name GUTS came to me one day, not too long ago, after quite a while of working on a nameless play. It immediately felt like "the one". Made so much sense to me. I had somehow known that the name would come when it's ready to come, and it did... All the associations of the word GUTS exist in this play, though the word is not used even once.
Cut to where we are now.....
That diary, which I always liked personalizing (I tend to personalize things....), became Mr. Diary; fiction was added; Middle Eastern dance, an agent in telling the story of Hellthy, was added; multimedia was added; many drafts were created over and over...And then I found my superwoman director/producer, Shoshona Currier, and she put together an incredible team, gifted award-winning designers, passionate artists, who amaze me every day. I couldn't have asked for more.
GUTS, my surreal dramdey, my multi-media fantasia, is going to hit the stage in one week! What began as a personal story of triumph, something a private person like me did NOT want to share with the world, is about to materialize as a theatrical piece. Now, that alone seems surreal to me....But like my mentor said, it's a lot bigger than me, and I am beyond honored to be the GUTS' vessel.
Here's a lil something from yesterday's costume fitting (Sydney Maresca, our costume designer, is a wizard...):
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