TT: Inch by inch

Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, opens in Orlando on September 15. Dennis Neal and Rus Blackwell, the star and director, are preparing for the premiere as I write these words. Meanwhile, I’m spending the week in Smalltown, U.S.A., wondering what they’re up to.
Yesterday Dennis sent me this wonderfully vivid publicity photo by Kristen Wheeler that shows him in costume as Louis Armstrong, one of the two roles that he’ll be playing in Satchmo at the Waldorf (the other is Joe Glaser, Armstrong’s manager). No sooner did I open his e-mail than I felt a surge of jealousy sweep through me. How come Dennis and Rus get to have all the fun down there in sunny Florida while I sit around twiddling my thumbs?
Of course, I’m not exactly taking it easy. I’ll be flying to the West Coast next Monday to spend a week at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, after which I head to Wisconsin for a week at Spring Green’s American Players Theatre. But as much as I’m looking forward to both trips, what I’d really like to be doing right now is sitting in the Orlando rehearsal room where my colleagues are starting to bring my play to life.
Alas, I can’t make it to Florida until a week before opening night, and I expect that the time between now and then will pass with increasingly agonizing slowness. But at least I have this picture to remind me that exciting things are happening, with or without me.