What floated into my head as I first watched rehearsals was the line from a poem… “In dreams begin responsibilities.”

 CHARM began in a waking dream I had in the winter of 2008, and now, in the early spring of 2010, I’m sitting in a room with eight actors, Meg Gibson, the director, John Geertsen  the Stage Manager, Sydney O’Donnell, the Dramaturg,  and Andra Harbold the Assistant Director… taking about what I meant by this line, that line, this image, that image… I’m responsible for the dream.

 Like a parent is responsible for the child she brings into the world.

I want the best for it. I want it to do well, to be understood and appreciated… even loved.

 I’m so lucky to have the first production here at the Salt Lake Acting Company, in the city where  I live, and where I can come to rehearsals every day. To look out for my creation.

 As the weeks go by - and they go by faster and faster - the director and the actors take over. The dream becomes something else, something new, an evolution of imagination takes place.  The director, the actors explore, inhabit, challenge  the dream.  The paradox of the rehearsal process is that when it’s really working the way it should, a transformation takes place.

Eventually I’m not the parent anymore, I’m the ancestor.  And the dream isn’t mine anymore.  It’s theirs.