Dear Stewart, @copelandmusic

Hey, man,

So it's been several months since I've written you, and a long while, since I've written consistently. Life. It gets busy, sometimes. As I'm sure you know! My stuff these days consists of trying to play the flute at least once a week, having time with my boy, attempts at adult conversation with my husband, visiting my mom and dad, trying to watch something on TV not necessarily just for toddlers, work (which is unfortunately unpleasant a lot of the time now), satisfying my insatiable need for new shoes without going broke, and once again, the theater.

I signed on to do the light/sound booth for the next play at City Garage, even though a couple of years ago I put in my retirement notice when I had my son. The director over there is incredibly persuasive. It's just really hard to tell her "no." I think, though, more than wanting to help her out, I like doing it. I like getting out of the house and seeing a play every weekend. I like the mental exercise that's involved in actually running the booth. No: it's not rocket science (and thank god, because I would be terrible at rocket science), but it's fun. Of course this means I had to take a break from flute choir, which was disappointing for me and my friends (especially because they might be playing something called "The Nutcracker in 5 Minutes," and when I got to look at it last time, that piece has me written all over it - the first part was so much fun! My friend Javier is probably going to play first, and he will KILL it. I'll just be jealous, but it'll be lovely), but seriously, I can't be everywhere.

This past Saturday, I went to my first cue-to-cue in a couple of years, and I think it was the longest cue-to-cue I've ever been in. I've been to lots of cue-to-cues, and lots of them were long and tedious. This one was long but also a lot of fun. Charles, the designer of the lighting and sound, kept things simple for me (the last show, which I obviously didn't do, involved 5 live cameras and some other craziness), though, it's still going to be beautiful. This show is BIG: big cast, big set, big ideas, so I think that's why he's keeping the tech relatively low-key. I'll have to wait and see a run-through of the whole thing to really know, though.

When we got started, the director introduced me this way to the cast: "Say hello to Irene! She is the goddess of light and sound." With an introduction like that, could you say no to her? I think not.

Anyway, if you're interested in what we're doing (a play called Moskva, by Steven Leigh Morris of the LA Weekly, based on the novel The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov), you can find out more, here: www.citygarage.org. As always, I will be saving a seat for you with me in the booth. You're tall; it'll be a great place to see the show. The beat of my heart will make it all that much more exciting. We open on October 18th. See you there?

Love you,
Irene