Day 3: February 2
Introductory chorus workshops for the ensemble. No matter how many times I do that exercise, it always terrifies and thrills me to see the moment when the chorus starts thinking as a unit.

Music rehearsal with our composer, Chris. We couldn’t be more on the same page if it was the only page in both of our books. I have all these little jingle-type melodies in mind for the choruses, and he orchestrates them on the guitar with medieval open intervals, with blues-rock progressions, with Celtic-sounding arpeggios, with everything. I’ve never heard my bad ideas sound so good.

It’s like all those years of mindless rhyme practice are paying off, finally the form is serving the story instead of just itself.

Day 4: February 3
Very successful readthrough with full music this morning. I’m so happy about the large amount of singing in this show. Oh, and there is no better place to watch that particular Super Bowl than with a roomful of Peyton Manning / Colts fans.

Day 5: February 4
We staged the Prologue and “What Is Your Name, Old Man?”

We learned that the way we’re going to stage Oedipus’s “blindness” is that he’s going to enter with his eyes closed, and open them when he begins speaking, to be “blind.” He can make eye contact with the Antigones (who are playing a character-chorus) but not with the larger Chorus.