Today is the anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. My father, who’s a professor at Cal State-Northridge, was almost certainly saved by the earthquake happening as early in the morning as it did (4:30 am) since that campus was devastated by the quake. January 17 never passes without me thinking about it.

Our house, which had an enormous stone chimney in the front, had its entire front wall crumble. Bookcases came out from walls, turned around in midair, and sat back down on the other wall. The kitchen was a collage of glass, and every surface was covered in books.

Today is also our first preview. I invited some local friends and students to see our dress rehearsal yesterday, and they were thrilled after intermission and crying after the 2nd act.

The director did something interesting with scheduling yesterday – we had our dress run in the morning and worked in the evening, and now we have another work session this afternoon before our evening preview, which ensures that we have 8 hours of rehearsal between dress and previews.